Public Health and Health Care Partnerships for Improved Tobacco Cessation

Abstract

Context: Tobacco use remains a leading cause of preventable death and disease. While most tobacco users are interested in quitting, few receive professional assistance. Program: This state health department-led project leveraged partnerships to build capacity and support 9 health care organizations in implementing system-level initiatives to improve delivery of tobacco cessation. Implementation: Participating organizations' initiatives targeted 3 focus areas: implementing best practices for tobacco cessation; quality improvement; and utilization of the electronic health record. Evaluation: A qualitative study was conducted to examine facilitators and barriers to tobacco cession systems change among participating health care organizations. Common barriers included time constraints, staffing issues, and organizational structure. These factors often differed by organization type (eg, large vs small). Facilitators included leadership buy-in, organizational priority, technical assistance, teams/teamwork, and IT support. Discussion: Initial findings suggest that this type of partnership model can be leveraged to gain organizational support, build capacity, address key barriers, and ensure that systems change strategies align with best practices for tobacco cessation across a diverse set of health care organizations. Findings presented in this report provide insights for other public health and health care organizations looking to implement similar initiatives.