Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104185

Hollie B. Gibbons, MPH, RD and Bonnie Coyle, MD, MS. Community Health, St. Luke's Hospital, 801 Ostrum St., Bethlehem, PA 18015, 610-954-2301, gibbonh@slhn.org

Background: Hospitalization provides an opportunity for tobacco cessation counselors to engage patients in formalized tobacco cessation programs, yet medical providers are often unaware of such programs. Method: St. Luke's Hospital, provides face-to-face counseling, self-help materials, enrollment in an outpatient tobacco treatment program and post-discharge telephone follow-up to inpatient smokers. The nursing staff assesses all hospital admissions for tobacco use, distribute self-help materials and initiate tobacco cessation consults. Counselors then assess patient's readiness to quit, provide education, recommend a quit plan, enroll patients into a formal outpatient tobacco treatment program and provide post-discharge telephone follow-up calls for one year. If a patient is experiencing nicotine withdrawal symptoms, the attending physician is contacted with a pharmacotherapy recommendation. Uninsured patients can receive pharmacotherapy upon discharge through a hospital pharmacy voucher program if they enroll in the outpatient program. The counseling and quit recommendations are documented in the medical charts. Results: By involving the nursing staff, hospital affiliated physicians and pharmacy department, patients receive a reinforced tobacco cessation message. As a result of medical provider education and involvement, counselors had a 97% increase in the number of patients counseled from 2003 (n=262) to 2004 (n=517). Also as a result of this initiative, physicians assess patients for nicotine withdrawal symptoms upon admission, ordering the appropriate pharmacotherapy when needed. Conclusion: Comprehensive hospital-based cessation programs educate patients at a time when they are most receptive to quit recommendations, thereby increasing participation in formalized tobacco cessation programs.

Learning Objectives:

• At the end of the presentation, attendees will be able to explain how to create a comprehensive inpatient tobacco cessation counseling program for hospitalized patients.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.