FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2011

Brockville General Hospital teams up with Canadian Cancer Society Smokers’ Helpline to support patients quitting tobacco

Brockville, ON—Brockville General Hospital (BGH) has partnered with the Canadian Cancer Society Smokers’ Helpline to offer follow-up to patients who are quitting smoking. Patients are offered brief counselling and nicotine replacement therapy while in hospital, and follow-up support from Smokers’ Helpline is arranged upon discharge.

The partnership is in collaboration with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute’s (UOHI) Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation (OMSC) program. BGH was among the first hospitals to join the program in 2008. Participation means that BGH health professionals systematically identify smokers on admission, administer a bedside assessment, and provide cessation medication during hospitalization.

Until now, when patients in the program received a series of mandatory automated calls following discharge, UOHI smoking cessation nurses would provide counselling, by phone, for those identified as requiring further follow up. The new partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society ensures that a Smokers’ Helpline Quit Coach will make the call and offer practical tips, support and referrals to additional resources.

The Canadian Cancer Society Smokers’ Helpline is a free, confidential service that offers personalized support, advice and information about quitting smoking and tobacco use. Smokers’ Helpline is available in English and French by phone, online and text messaging, and more than 100 additional languages through an interpreter by phone. The service can be accessed at 1 877 513-5333 or www.smokershelpline.ca.

“By integrating with Smokers’ Helpline, we can sustain the program since we are able to triage the patient to community follow up upon patient discharge,” says Carlene MacDonald, program coordinator at the Brockville General Hospital. “We are able to rely on the Quitline’s Quit Coaches who are trained exclusively in tobacco cessation.”

To date, 70 hospitals in Canada currently employ the Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation program, and 12 are integrated with Smokers’ Helpline as part of their participation, with three more identified for future implementation.

For more information, please contact:

Maggie Wheeler Communications Officer BROCKVILLE GENERAL HOSPITAL 613-345-5649 Ext. 1-1504

Healthy people – Outstanding Care

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