Smoke-free hospital campus: A bridge to family cessation treatment

As a maternal/child health consortium, the Southern NJ Perinatal Cooperative offers professional education and client services to fifteen hospitals in Southern NJ. Mom's Quit Connection (MQC), the Cooperative's maternal smoking cessation program has provided counseling to pregnant and parenting women with tobacco addiction since 2001. MQC has always offered training on brief intervention counseling (Ask, Advise and Refer) to hospital staff and made smoking cessation resource materials available for patients. Initially hospital staff felt they did not have time to discuss cessation with new families. Instead they placed MQC brochures in post partum discharge packets, a practice that MQC has found ineffective in generating client referrals. Two recent trends have affected the issue of smoking cessation support for new families. Hospital accreditation standards requiring post partum discharge education regarding second hand smoke hazards have become more stringent, providing MQC an inpatient platform to promote its services. Additionally over the past year, several area hospitals have made the decision to become a completely smoke-free campus. One of these hospitals, Virtua Health System, recognized that this decision could seriously impact their maternity program, which brings over 7,700 deliveries, new moms and families to their hospital each year. The hospital's Chief of Obstetrics reached out to MQC for assistance. A collaborative plan was established, utilizing MQC's expertise to provide physician/nurse training, refine patient and visitor policies, and ensure easy access and referral to cessation treatment resources for the staff and patient community.