The Joint Commission is asking for public comment (see below)
by September 30, 2009 concerning the expansion to a rigorous tobacco cessation
requirement for all tobacco-using hospital patients.
They are proposing
requirements that are based on the evidence for effective tobacco cessation
efforts while in the hospital, upon discharge, and community follow-up. I
encourage all to review the information provided by the Joint Commission and to
consider submitting a comment letter.
- Melva Fager Okun, DrPH, Senior
Program Manager, NC Prevention Partners
August 31, 2009
Performance Measures for Assessing and Treating Tobacco,
Alcohol, and Other Drug Use and Dependence
The Joint Commission
is inviting public comment on a proposed set of 8 candidate measures that focus
on assessing and treating tobacco, alcohol and other drug use and dependence in
the hospital setting. This measure set is intended to enhance and replace
the current National Hospital Quality Measures for Adult Smoking Cessation Advice/Counseling
in the acute myocardial infarction (AMI-4), heart failure (HF-4) and pneumonia
(PN-4) measure sets.
The work of a
Technical Advisory Panel resulted in this set of measures that expands and
broadens the scope of the current measure set population to all applicable
patients who use tobacco and/or who use and are dependent on alcohol and other
drugs.
See the 8 candidate measures.
The public comment
period opens September 1, 2009 and will close at midnight on September 30,
2009.
Fax Referral Challenge UpdateThe results are in for the first month of NC Prevention Partners' second
Fax Referral Challenge. Congratulations to the hospitals listed below for their outstanding work in connecting patients to the
NC Tobacco Use Quitline using the
fax referral form.
If your hospital hasn't participated in the past, it's not too late to get started. Contact Katie 919.969.7022 x 201 if you have any questions.
Top hospitals
using the NC Quitline fax referral form in July 1. Carolinas Medical Center- 42 fax referrals
2. UNC Hospitals - 14 fax referrals
3. FirstHealth - 12 fax referrals
4. Duke University Hospital - 11 fax referrals
5. Chowan Hospital - 6 fax referrals
July NC
Quitline reports:
Highlights and links to full reports below
Fax Referral ReportDashboard Report Demographic ReportCommunity Referral How Heard About Report by CountyHow Heard About Report by DaySummary of Reports
Fax Referral reports: 141 fax referrals were received.
Of those, 47% accepted services
(42% enrolled in the One-Call program, 53%
enrolled in the Multiple-Call program, 3%
requested Materials Only and 2% asked
General Questions).
How Heard About by County report: #1 was Health Professional at
26%, #2 was
TV/Commercial at 11%, and #3
was Employer/Worksite at 10%.
How Heard About by Dayreport:
The highest volume day was a tie between 7/15.
Health Plan report: Uninsured = 26%, Medicaid = 18%,
Medicare = 14%.
Adult Demographic report: 65% of Tobacco Users were female
and 94% were not pregnant.
