Families First Health and Support Center of the Greater Seacoast receives TREATING TOBACCO USE & DEPENDENCE INNOVATION AWARD
The aim of this clinical quality improvement project was to increase the capacity of Families First Health and Support Center to effectively provide a brief tobacco use and dependence intervention with clients who use tobacco. Interventions were incorporated by making modifications to their electronic health/medical records and clinical workflow using evidence-based US Public Health Service Taskforce recommendations for providing clinical brief interventions for Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence.
The result of this clinical quality improvement project was a unique, paperless communication loop between Families First clinicians, and the NH Tobacco Helpline, the proactive tobacco cessation counseling service offered via the clinician portal QuitWorks-NH. Today, clients who are seen at Families First that use tobacco and want to quit are referred by clinicians to a Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist with the touch of a button. The Specialist will call the patient and offer up to five no cost counseling sessions over the phone. The referring clinician then receives a confidential report from the Specialist about what treatment services were accepted by the patient, referred to as the patient status report. The patient status report is then downloaded into the patient's electronic medical record.
This project fulfills activities for Meaningful Use and Medical Home requirements.
This project is the first of its kind in the State to complete all the steps mentioned above and is one of the first being achieved in the Nation.
To implement this paperless referal and feedback loop into your practice, contact Teresa Brown at the NH Tobacco Prevention & Control Program at 603.271.8949 or tmbrown@dhhs.state.nh.us.
Read coverage about the event here:
Portsmouth-NH Patch
Seacoastonline.com
Why 2As and 1R?
The alternative protocol to the gold standard 5As (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange).
The U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline, Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence 2008 Update calls for systems level tobacco intervention efforts using the 5As. However, working the 5As into the practice's current workflow may be overwhelming, particularly if providers are not connected to state quitline resources. As Meaningful Use rolls out, QuitWorks-NH via the NH Tobacco Prevention and Control Program (TPCP), can provide training and technical assistance (TA) for practices integrating tobacco treatment into electronic medical records (EMR) using the 2A (Ask and Assist) and R (Refer to QW-NH) so that providers have a resource to refer patients that want to quit.
- Create a team comprised of Senior Management, Technical Development, Clinical staff and Operational staff to address a process to adopt 2A and R.
- Examine current work flow and decide what the prompts for ASK will look like:
- Current, Former, Never
- Current every day, current some days, Former, Never
- Other?
- Decide where in the EMR the ASK will be placed
- Vital Signs
- History
- Problem List
- Other?
- Changes in workflow due to changes in EMR
- How will an ASSIST be made e.g., clear messages, prescriptions, OTC recommendations?
- Will the REFER to QuitWorks-NH be paper or electronic: tailoring the fax form to the practice?
- Generate reports based on provider loyalty to the EMR fields.
- Disposition reports to providers from quitline on patient treatment status.
- Training in QW-NH logistics-getting staff together, changing job functions
- Institutionalizing responsibility for quitline materials to be present in waiting areas and exam rooms.
- All new staff will be trained in 2A and R upon hire.
2010 Surgeon General's report Clinician Sheet
A new report from the Surgeon General contains important new information on how tobacco smoke causes disease and explains why it is crucial to stop smoking and avoid secondhand smoke.
This one-page fact sheet summarizes the findings from How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General. This fact sheet features smoking-attributable chronic disease information as well as “how to quit” information from the Clinical Practice Guidelines (published by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). The fact sheet provides simple talking points and key information to help medical providers talk to their patients about quitting tobacco use.
Click here to download the .pdf
Visit the CDC website to order copies
Click here to learn more about the full report
What happens when a patient calls the NH Tobacco Helpline?
This video provided courtesy of Quitline.com and the Washington State Department of Health. Click Here to view the video on their website.
Multi-State Collaborative for Health Systems Change
For providers interested in what/how other states are implementing the PHSG, the Multistate Collaborative for Health Systems Change is a collaborative of tobacco control programs working in states to facilitate sustainable changes in health care systems within the states and nationally in order to reduce tobacco use and prevalence.
Visit multistatecessationcollaborative.org for more information
Text4baby.org
Text4baby is a free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health. An educational program of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), text4baby provides pregnant women and new moms with information they need to take care of their health and give their babies the best possible start in life. Women who sign up for the service by texting BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411 will receive free SMS text messages each week, timed to their due date or baby’s date of birth.
Visit Text4baby.org for more information
Law Banning Flavored Tobacco Goes Into Effect
The FDA has released a notice regarding Tobacco products stating that
effective September 22, 2009, cigarettes that contain certain
characterizing flavors are considered adulterated under the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Family Smoking Prevention and
Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA). Menthol is not prohibited but rather flavors
such as vanilla, mint and clove would be.
Read more on the FDA Web site »
Learn more about Health Risks Specific to Flavored Cigarettes
Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update - Clinical Practice Guideline
This Guideline is an updated version of the 2000 Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence Guideline. It is the product of a private-sector panel of experts, consortium representatives, and staff. The update was written to include new, effective clinical treatments for tobacco dependence that have become available since the 2000 Guideline was published. The 275-page Guideline contains strategies and recommendations designed to assist clinicians; tobacco dependence treatment specialists; and health care administrators, insurers, and purchasers in delivering and supporting effective treatments for tobacco use and dependence.
Read more on the Surgeon General's site »
NH Indoor Smoking Law Amended
New Hampshire lawmakers passed an amendment to the NH Indoor Smoking Act in June 2007. The amended statute protects the workforce and the public by reducing exposure to secondhand smoke.
Effective September 17, 2007, restaurants and bars in New Hampshire became smoke-free. New Hampshire joins the rest of New England by implementing such a law.
Download the Indoor Smoking Act Factsheet (PDF, 92 KB)
www.trytostopnh.org