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Brockville General Hospital |
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News Release |
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BGH Smoking Cessation Program Receives High Praise from Heart Institute Brockville—The Brockville General Hospital team of health professionals delivering the Smoking Cessation Program recently received high praise for their success rate from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. BGH was one of the first hospitals to join the Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation Network, back in 2007. In a recent letter from Dr. Andrew Pipe, Chief of Prevention and Rehabilitation Division at the Heart Institute, the team was congratulated on a highly successful implementation of the Ottawa Model, and an exemplary Smoking Cessation Program (SCP). Since the implementation of the program in January 2008, BGH health professionals have counseled and treated over 521 smokers. The effectiveness rate for long-term smoking cessation increased from 18% to 27%. As a result of the program’s intervention at BGH, approximately 141 patients are now smoke-free. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disability in Canada today. Quitting smoking can immediately and dramatically reduce the risk of disease and the need for re-hospitalization. It takes less than 10 minutes to deliver smoking cessation counseling as part of routine nursing care, yet it is the single most powerful preventative intervention in clinical practice. This hospital-based program identifies smokers on admission, provides stop-smoking counseling and medication during hospitalization, links the patient back to community resources, and provides follow-up after discharge from hospital. Why intervene in the hospital? “Patients cannot smoke while in the hospital so the setting is conducive to quitting,” explain BGH Program Coordinator Carlene MacDonald. “Out of 100 patients approached, 65 on average want to quit smoking. So we offer them counseling, provide nicotine replacement therapy, and move them along the continuum toward long-term cessation.” According the Heart Institute, a health professional’s advice to quit smoking can increase quit rates by up to 30%. Approximately 90% of Ontario residents visit a primary care clinic each year, and primary care is the first point of contact most people have with the healthcare system. The Ottawa Model of the SCP grew out of a program at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) and is now nationally supported. Here at BGH, when an in-patient comes to hospital, as part of the admission history the patient is asked if he or she is a smoker. If the answer is yes, the Quadra-Med data system generates a consult with a Respiratory Therapist, plus trained nursing staff. Once home, the program continues for the patient with automated “check-in” phone calls via a voice recognition system from the Heart Institute’s SCP team over a period of six months, with counseling available with UOHI nurses. “We don’t have an out-patient clinic for smoking cessation yet,” says Respiratory Therapist Kelly Mitten, “but we hope to have the funding to do so in the future.” The program is an investment in both patient health and health care services. A recent study by the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control showed that smokers occupy 32% of hospital beds in that province—stressing the Quebec healthcare system at the cost of $930 million per year.
Happy with the status quo—Ottawa Heart Institute staff Pamela Heise and Kerri-Anne Mullen (standing centre and right) check in with BGH staff(standing left) Heather Houlahan, Respiratory Therapist; (seated left to right) Carlene MacDonald, SCP Program Coordinator; and Heather Crawford, VP Clinical Services/Chief Nursing Executive.
Healthy people – Outstanding Care
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