National Working Group for ACTTION

July 1, 2010

In Selected Diagnoses, Most Hospital Patients Receive Cessation Advice

Over a seven-year period (2002-2008), hospitals have steadily improved individual heart attack and pneumonia care measures, including smoking cessation advice, according to the recently released report Improving America’s Hospitals: The Joint Commission’s Annual Report on Quality and Safety 2009.

The report shows that for heart attack patients, smoking cessation advice improved from 66.6 percent in 2002 to 98.9 percent in 2008.  This was an improvement of 32.3%.  For heart failure patients, the improvement was 55.4%, from 42.2% to 97.6%.

Pneumonia patients also received increased smoking cessation advice.  In 2002, only 37.2% of pneumonia patients were advised to quit smoking.  By 2008, 96% received the advice, an increase of 58.8%.

Editors note:  These results are encouraging, but only deal with three diagnoses.  The August issue of the Newsletter will provide an update on the Joint Commission’s efforts regarding cessation advice for hospitalized patients.

Higher Participation Needed in Employer-Sponsored Smoking Cessation Programs

Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting and outsourcing company, conducts an annual health care survey to track employer benefit programs and practices.  Their 2010 report covers 600 employer-provided health benefit programs, including 350 of the largest U.S. employers.

The survey found that in 2009, 51% of the companies offered smoking cessation programs.  The average percentage of eligible employees participating in the smoking cessation programs was only 8%.

This is in contrast with data reported by the Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS) that just under one-quarter of respondents (23.4%) said their employer had any cessation program.  The ATS also found that larger employers (with more than 50 employees) were more likely to offer cessation programs (30.4%).  Although the Hewitt survey questioned employers and the ATS questioned individuals in 19 states, the difference in the findings is striking.