A 3-Step Approach to Helping Patients Quit Smoking

1. Identify patients who smoke - implement an office-wide system for checking and documenting the smoking status of all patients when vital signs are taken.

2. Strongly advise smokers about the health hazards of smoking. Cessation counseling, even as brief as 3 minutes, is a valuable part of a smoking cessation attempt.

3. Smokers should be offered smoking cessation treatment at every office visit. The more intense the treatment, the more effective it is in producing long-term abstinence from tobacco.

Smoking Cessation Clinical Practice Guideline
For Primary Care Physicians

1. Physician identifies patients who smoke.
2. Physician strongly advises patients to quit.
3.

 

 Patients are ready to quit:

Help patients set a quit date. Ideally, the date should be within 2 weeks of the office visit.

Counsel patients to prepare for the quit date.

Help patients select the most appropriate smoking cessation therapy.

Provide supplemental educational material if therapy prescribed does not provide an individualized support program.

Follow up with patients between 4 and 7 times to assess progress.

 Patients are not ready to quit:

Help patients identify relevant negative consequences of smoking.

Inform patients about smoking-related health risks.

Reinforce the rewards of quitting to patients.

Review a personalized motiva-tional message developed for each smoker at every office visit.