A U.S. healthcare accreditor has announced plans to require hospitals to screen and treat for patients for tobacco use.
The tobacco screening and treatment plans were announced today by the Partnership for Prevention, and released by the Joint Commission, an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States.
The new certification measures will require participating hospitals to screen all inpatients for tobacco, provide counseling and pharmacologic treatment to tobacco users, and provide limited follow-up after discharge.
Partnership for Prevention provided the original funding for development and pilot testing of the measure set. Partnership’s ActionToQuit initiative advocates that all hospitals and health systems in the nation contribute to the public’s health by making tobacco cessation a priority.
Tobacco screening and treatment for all patients is currently the practice in some hospitals. It is not a routine procedure, however, in spite of wide agreement that treatment to help patients quit is both effective and cost-effective. Hospitalization provides an ideal opportunity to help tobacco users quit.
The Partnership for Prevention reports that although this is a significant step forward for promoting efforts to help people quit tobacco use in the United States, there is much more work to be done before all hospitals, health centers, and addiction treatment facilities establish this as a standard practice.
To view the measure set, visit the Joint Commission website and look for Specifications Manual version 4.0:
The four tobacco measures have been extracted and can be found here:
TOB-1
TOB-2
TOB-3
TOB-4
Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.
The tobacco screening and treatment plans were announced today by the Partnership for Prevention, and released by the Joint Commission, an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States.
The new certification measures will require participating hospitals to screen all inpatients for tobacco, provide counseling and pharmacologic treatment to tobacco users, and provide limited follow-up after discharge.
Partnership for Prevention provided the original funding for development and pilot testing of the measure set. Partnership’s ActionToQuit initiative advocates that all hospitals and health systems in the nation contribute to the public’s health by making tobacco cessation a priority.
Tobacco screening and treatment for all patients is currently the practice in some hospitals. It is not a routine procedure, however, in spite of wide agreement that treatment to help patients quit is both effective and cost-effective. Hospitalization provides an ideal opportunity to help tobacco users quit.
The Partnership for Prevention reports that although this is a significant step forward for promoting efforts to help people quit tobacco use in the United States, there is much more work to be done before all hospitals, health centers, and addiction treatment facilities establish this as a standard practice.
To view the measure set, visit the Joint Commission website and look for Specifications Manual version 4.0:
The four tobacco measures have been extracted and can be found here:
TOB-1
TOB-2
TOB-3
TOB-4
Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.
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