PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Real “meaningful use” EHRs help patients quit smoking BY CRYSTAL CONDE Re-
searchers at The Univer- sity of Texas at Austin are helping practicing physi- cians and other health pro- fessionals use electronic health records (EHRs) to wean smokers off tobacco. That’s important because UT’s MD Anderson Cancer Center says patients are 30 times more likely to enroll in tobacco cessation coun- seling if a clinician refers them than if they merely receive information about services. Researchers developed the e-tobacco protocol to improve patient referrals to the state-funded Texas Tobacco Quitline, a free, confidential, and 24-hour, 7-day-a-week service at (877) 937-7848. It offers three to five phone counsel- ing sessions and two weeks of nicotine replacement therapy to those referred by a physician or other health professional. The e-protocol features a
comprehensive ask-advise- refer approach to tobacco cessation. At every visit, physicians and other prac-
EHR. In the past, all refer- rals were done with a pa- per fax,” said Shelley Karn, EdD, project manager for the tobacco program at UT-Austin. In Austin, Lone Star
Tracy Angelocci, MD, Lone Star Circle of Care chief medical officer, says the e-tobacco protocol developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin allows physicians to refer patients to tobacco cessation programs with the click of a mouse.
Circle of Care, People’s Community Clinic, and El Buen Samaritano Episco- pal Mission Clinic adopted the e-tobacco protocol in 2011. Dr. Karn says the preliminary findings are promising. Before using the e-pro- tocol, health professionals at all three health systems referred only seven pa- tients to the Quitline via fax. Since they began us- ing the e-protocol, they have screened more than 80 percent (285,678) of patients for tobacco use. They identified about 11 percent (31,985) of them as tobacco users, and about 4 percent of them (1,418) said they were ready to stop smoking, a requirement for Quitline referral. Eighty-eight per- cent of them (1,254) ac- cepted a referral to the Quitline.
titioners ask patients 13 years and older whether they use to- bacco. If the answer is yes, they advise them to quit as soon as possible and, if the patients agree, electronically refer them to the Quitline. “The protocol is unique in that it provides an opportunity to refer a patient to an outside source with one click in the
Tracy Angelocci, MD, is the chief medical officer for Lone
Star Circle of Care, a federally qualified health center with more than 25 Central Texas clinics. She says its 128 physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and behavioral health therapists use the e-tobacco protocol. “The e-tobacco protocol allowed us to treat smoking status
March 2013 TEXAS MEDICINE 41
JIM LINCOLN
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