toh

On any given day in Ontario, one in five hospital beds are occupied by smokers. Among patients who smoke, seven out of 10 want to try quitting in the six months following a hospitalization.

Experts at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, who recognized the important opportunity to help hospitalized smokers, began developing the Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation (OMSC) in 2002. The OMSC puts processes in place to: systematically identify and assist smokers while they are admitted to hospital; initiate tobacco cessation treatments; and, importantly, link patients to follow-up care.

The OMSC uses an automated follow-up system that sends brief automated calls or emails inquiring about the patient’s smoking status after hospitalization. If a patient needs further support, a live follow-up call from a quit-smoking specialist takes place.

The program has been so successful that the OMSC has broadened its reach to inpatient, outpatient and primary-care settings at over 170 sites across Canada, including at 60 Ontario hospitals.

Recently, new federal funding will allow the Heart Institute to further expand the OMSC into respiratory and diabetes clinics in Ontario, British Columbia and New Brunswick.

To find out more, visit ottawamodel.ca.

This story, edited from the original, appears courtesy of OHA Today, the monthly newsletter of the Ontario Hospital Association.

You might also like…