Beyond Brief Intervention: Treating Tobacco Dependence through Systems Change

Audience:

Tobacco control program directors and managers; health care quality improvement directors and managers; technical assistance providers.

Key Points:

Health systems play a key role in identifying tobacco users and providing evidence-based care to help tobacco users successfully quit. Systems change – changing the processes for how health care is delivered – has the potential to establish sustainable, integrated solutions and build capacity within health care systems to address tobacco use.

In 2010, ClearWay Minnesota piloted and evaluated a health systems change funding initiative, providing resources and technical assistance to four health care systems that had previously provided direct cessation services funded by ClearWay Minnesota.

The health systems are located across Minnesota and serve varying patient populations. Their systems change strategies include:

• Collecting and using data for reporting and feedback, to facilitate patient follow-up and support on-going quality improvement initiatives
• Engaging and supporting medical staff by providing training, establishing referral processes and other mechanisms to facilitate brief interventions

This presentation will focus on how the four grantees implemented these strategies. Specifically:

• Critical elements for implementing systems change
• How electronic health records systems impact implementation of systems change strategies
• Challenges faced and opportunities that arose throughout the course of this work
• Lessons learned and real-world considerations for health systems change

Educational Experience:

This information will be provided via oral presentation and include real-world examples of how health systems are implementing systems change.

Benefits:

Participants will learn new information about how health systems are changing care delivery processes to better address tobacco use.