Electronic System for Referring Tobacco Users to Quitline and Monitoring Their Progress Increases Physician Referrals and Enhances Access to Cessation Services

Snapshot

Summary

In partnership with Dean Health Systems, the State of Wisconsin enhanced its phone-based tobacco quitline by creating an electronic health record–based, or “eReferral,” system that allows physicians at two Dean Health clinics to refer patients to the quitline and subsequently monitor their progress, such as whether and how many times they had contact with the service’s counselors and their planned quit date. Compliant with all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements, the new approach replaced an existing fax-based referral system. Its adoption led to significant increases in clinician referrals of tobacco users to the quitline and to significantly more tobacco users receiving cessation services.

Evidence Rating(What is this?)

Moderate: The evidence consists of pre- and post-implementation comparisons of the proportion of all clinic patients who used tobacco and were referred to the quitline and the proportion who accepted tobacco cessation services.