The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is re-launching their national advertising campaign, Tips From Former Smokers (Tips). This campaign features real people suffering with tobacco-caused conditions, including amputation, blindness, and COPD. The ads have run previously, but this month, the ads will carry a new tagline, “You can quit. Talk with your doctor for help.”

This campaign may provide an opportunity to highlight your own smoking cessation program. The media is always interested in finding local connections to national news stories.  Here are some ideas for garnering media attention:

Ø  Provide the media with a health care professional to discuss the campaign and what is happening locally to promote cessation to patients

Ø  Feature a local patient who has similar issues to those discussed in the campaign and/or who sought help from your hospital to quit smoking after seeing the campaign

Ø  Prepare a press release describing this ad campaign; include information about cessation services available at your hospital and quotes from your physicians

Ø  Pitch a story/interview to local media with one of your physicians or patients

Ø  Publish an article about the campaign, highlighting your hospital’s cessation services in internal newsletters and/or on websites

Ø Post buttons or badges for the campaign (available on www.cdc.gov/tips) on your website and social media sites

Materials:

Pre-written articles and other resources about the Tips from Former Smokers campaign are available from www.cdc.gov/tips. These articles can be adapted for use by your hospital.

Are you working on upgrading your environment/campus policies and employee cessation services in order to achieve the Bronze Star Status? Are you working on assessing your Inpatient Screening and Treatment protocols to attain Silver Star status? Would you like some expert guidance? On June 18^th, Melva Fager Okun and Elina Urli Hodges from NC Prevention Partners (NCPP) will be available to visit member hospitals to provide guidance and support.

NCPP has worked with more than 100 hospitals in several states on building cessation systems. Dr. Okun and Ms. Hodges have collaborated with hospitals to upgrade their treatment protocols, ensuring that tobacco cessation services are widely incorporated into hospital systems. Their June visit is an opportunity for hospitals to gain insight on how to create a robust tobacco-free campus policy and/or patient treatment program, as well as to hear about how other hospitals have successfully implemented evidence-based best practices to improve policies and services.

To be eligible for these free consulting services, please email the following information (not to exceed one page) to Marie Bresnahan at mbresnahan@health.nyc.gov by June 4, 2013:

Are you working on: (1) assessing your environmental/employee policies or (2) your inpatient screening and treatment protocols? If both, please choose one area of focus for this meeting.

Describe your process to date, including the following information:

1. Have you taken the assessment, received a grade, downloaded your action plan and recommendations report?
2. Have you identified what changes will be needed to upgrade your policies or services?
3. What challenges are you facing?

Provide the names and titles of proposed attendees.

1. If focusing on the environmental/employee assessment, we recommend you include leadership from: Administration, Operations, Human Resources, Facilities, Security, Employee Health or Wellness
2. If focusing on the inpatient screening and treatment, we recommend you include: CMO, CNO, QI/QA, IT, Tobacco Treatment Counselor.

Meetings will be scheduled on Tuesday June 18^th, 2013. Please send times that would work for you and we will do our best to accommodate your schedule. hospital to host this meeting.

Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island (RUMCSI) is working on achieving the Bronze Star. To date, they have achieved an “A” grade in the Tobacco-Free assessment and have completed an environmental assessment to ensure that adequate signage is in place, cigarette litter is removed and their tobacco-free campus policy is enforced. At present, RUMSCI is compiling utilization data on employee smoking cessation services.

Members of the NYC DOHMH Tobacco-Free Hospitals Campaign now have exclusive use of the Outpatient Quit System tool, developed in conjunction with NC Prevention Partners. Similar to the Inpatient Quit System, this new assessment tool helps hospitals further develop a comprehensive approach to tobacco cessation for their outpatients.

Now every member hospital has the tools needed to achieve the highest standard in tobacco-free excellence, the Gold Star! Log in to your account today at https://www.ncpreventionpartners.org/ncpp/Account/Logon to assess your Outpatient Quit System today.

National Experts Visit New York City Hospitals

As a member of the Tobacco-Free Hospitals Campaign, you are eligible to receive site visits from national experts who can assist you in enhancing your hospital’s tobacco control and treatment policies. In recent months, the campaign has hosted two tobacco control experts: Ty Patterson, Executive Director of the National Center for Tobacco Policy, and Melva Fager Okun, Senior Manager at NC Prevention Partners. Both provided technical assistance tailored to meet the specific needs of the member hospitals visited.

Ty Patterson met with hospital administrators at both Harlem Hospital and Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. The visits focused on further developing their tobacco-free campus policies and compliance strategies.  Of particular interest were the policy impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods and patient, visitor and staff safety. Both Harlem Hospital and Jamaica Hospital Medical Center have demonstrated a strong commitment to creating smoke-free campuses. These meetings provided a unique opportunity to strategize with Mr. Patterson on further strengthening their own campus policies, as well as enforcement strategies.

Melva Fager Okun reviewed the protocols for identifying and treating inpatients who are tobacco users at North Shore-LIJ’s Lenox Hill Hospital, NYU Langone Medical Center and Medisys Health Network, which includes Jamaica and Flushing Hospital Medical Centers. Each hospital visited had already completed their Inpatient Quit System web-based assessment, received a grade and downloaded their tailored Action Plans and Recommendations Reports. Ms. Fager Okun worked with each hospital to review these reports and made suggestions on how best to upgrade their systems of care and create more robust quit systems for inpatients.

Several New York City Tobacco-Free Hospital campaign members are assessing their tobacco protocols related to inpatient screening and treatment. For example, NYU Langone Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center have both developed strong protocols, not only for identifying and treating tobacco users while in the hospital (providing counseling and prescribing nicotine replacement therapy or other cessation medications, when appropriate), but also for systemically providing follow-up care to tobacco users after they are discharged.

NYU Langone and Montefiore Medical Center implemented various strategies to enhance their protocols including: updating their electronic health record, conducting staff training on tobacco dependence treatment, and routinely providing follow-up with tobacco users after being discharged. The Tobacco-Free Hospitals Campaign is compiling these and other best-practice strategies for systematically screening and treating inpatients for tobacco use to share with other hospitals. Stay tuned for news on an upcoming webinar where several campaign members will describe how they made changes to their systems of care in order to screen, treat and follow-up with all tobacco users.

The New York City Health Department has partnered with NC Prevention Partners to develop a new Outpatient Quit System tool, and it will soon be available to you. Similar to the Inpatient Quit System, which helps hospitals with inpatient policy development, the new Outpatient Quit System tool will assist hospitals in further developing a comprehensive approach to tobacco cessation for their outpatients. Now every member hospital will have the tools needed to achieve the highest standard in tobacco-free excellence, the Gold Star! 

Click here to review the Outpatient Quit System summary. To learn more about the Outpatient Quit System and its components, register here to attend the April 23^rd webinar from 1-2pm.  Additional details will be provided after you register.

Melva Fager Okun from NC Prevention Partners has worked with well over 100 hospitals in North Carolina and other states on tobacco policy. Now she is bringing her expertise to New York City. Dr. Okun guides hospitals through the process of reviewing and upgrading policies and systems of care to assure that tobacco cessation services are widely incorporated into hospital systems. Additionally, she has been involved in the design and development of the Tobacco Module (to review environmental and employee policies) and the Patient Quit Tobacco Systems since their inception.

 Dr. Okun will be available on February 14 and 15, 2013 to meet with members of your hospital team who are working to enhance tobacco-free policies and systems. This meeting is an opportunity to gain insight on how to create a robust tobacco-free campus policy and/or a patient treatment program, as well as to hear about how other hospitals have successfully implemented evidence-based best practices to improve policies and services. 

To be eligible for these free consulting services, please email the following information (not to exceed one page) to Marie Bresnahan at mbresnahan@health.nyc.gov by February 7, 2013:

1. Are you working on: (1)assessing your environmental/employee policies or (2)your inpatient screening and treatment protocols? If both, please choose one area of focus for this meeting.

1. Describe your process to date, including the following information:
2. Have you taken the assessment, received a grade, downloaded your action plan and recommendations report?
3. Have you identified what changes will be needed to upgrade your policies or services?
4. What challenges are you facing?

1. Below are the available 90-minute time slots.  Please indicate a first and second choice.
2. Thursday, February 14, 2013; noon – 5:00pm
3. Friday, February 15, 2013, 8:30am – 3:00pm

1. Provide the names and titles of proposed attendees.
2. If focusing on the environmental/employee assessment, we recommend you include leadership from: Operations, Human Resources, Facilities, Security, Employee Health or Wellness
3.  If focusing on the inpatient screening and treatment, we recommend you include: CMO, CNO, QI/QA, IT, Tobacco Treatment Counselor.

Did you know that the New York City Health Department’s Tobacco-Free Hospitals Campaign will soon become part of a larger national hospital-employee wellness initiative? This exciting opportunity is a joint effort involving NC Prevention Partners, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a group of national partners. Because of our work together, NC Prevention Partners has invited NYC Campaign members to participate in this initiative.

Getting Involved Is Easy: Simply take the Culture of Wellness and Tobacco-Free assessments by February 28, 2013.  Available free to all NYC hospitals participating in the Tobacco-Free Hospitals Campaign, these assessments will help you to improve hospital-employee wellness by enhancing your tobacco-free policies, employee benefits structure, personnel policies and environments.  Your results will be included in an aggregate report of early hospital-employee wellness successes among a sample of hospitals nationwide.  As always, your hospital’s grades will remain confidential.  To log in or create your account, go to www.ncpreventionpartners.org (click the “Log In” button at the top of the page).  For more information on joining the campaign or accessing your account, contact Marie Bresnahan at mbresnahan@health.nyc.gov.

Working to Keep Our Hospital Employees Healthy

Health care costs for hospital employees are nine percent higher than the general U.S. workforce[1].  Employees who smoke experience higher medical costs and greater lost productivity than nonsmokers. Many of these costs are borne by employers.[2] A survey of 524 local employers found that 93% of organizations offered some type of smoking cessation support for their employees and among those that did, 98% found their health care costs were reduced as a result of their smoking cessation program. Every respondent with a cessation program reported a return of more than $3.00 on every $1.00 invested in the program.[3]

Harlem Hospital Center is the first Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) facility to join the Tobacco-Free Hospitals Campaign. In signing onto this campaign the senior staff, under the leadership of Denise Soares, RN, MA, Executive Director, has demonstrated their commitment to reviewing and upgrading their environmental policies, employee cessation programs and patient care quit tobacco systems. 

Since 1907, Harlem Hospital has a rich history of serving many notables, including Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as hundreds of thousands medically underserved New York City residents, primarily from Central Harlem, West Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. We applaud Harlem Hospital’s commitment to the health of their community and look forward to their participation in the Tobacco-Free Hospitals Campaign as they strive for the first level of achievement – Bronze Star status.

Welcome to the campaign!