FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 24,
2011
Contact: Mary Lourdes Burke, chief communications officer
978-466-2214 or mburke@healthalliance.com
LEOMINSTER - HealthAlliance Hospital, a member of UMass
Memorial Health Care, is proud to be recognized by the Massachusetts Department
of Public Health (DPH) and the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention
Program (MTCP) for its efforts in reducing the incidence of smoking in the area
through its participation in QuitWorks. QuitWorks is a free, stop-smoking
service available to health care providers in an effort to assist Massachusetts
smokers receive the counseling and support necessary to help them quit.
Members of HealthAlliance Hospital's Respiratory Services Department were
recognized by members of MTCP and local community partners for their work in
referring more than 70 patients to the QuitWorks program from July through
December 2010. "QuitWorks has enabled our staff to approach patients with a way
to help them quit smoking by empowering the patient and helping them to identify
their reasons to quit, their quit plan, and offering support to make it happen.
QuitWorks provides free nicotine replacement therapy to help the patients get
started, refers patients to local resources to assist them, and offers ongoing
one-on-one telephone counseling with trained staff to provide continuing
support. Coupled with the support of our hospital's smoking cessation program,
QuitWorks provides a needed resource for patients who want to make this attempt
to quit smoking their last," stated Lynn Sullivan, manager, respiratory
services, HealthAlliance Hospital.
To help reduce the rates of tobacco use in the community, members of the
Respiratory Services Department participate in the QuitWorks program and
collaborate with the hospital's Simonds-Sinon Regional Cancer Center to provide
leadership at the smoking cessation program held on the HealthAlliance Hospital
- Burbank Campus. The respiratory team members also participate in area health
and wellness fairs to educate the community about the dangers of smoking and the
signs and symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
In addition, HealthAlliance Hospital was recently honored by The Joint
Commission for consistent, high performance in adult smoking cessation
counseling advice with an invitation to share its approach to achieve success in
this area with other hospitals nationwide through an online forum to facilitate
the exchange of quality improvement practices. This invitation is issued only to
hospitals that have significantly improved their core measures in adult smoking
cessation counseling advice and have sustained that improvement at a level that
meets or exceeds the national target for the measure.
QuitWorks, a program of the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention
Program, is supported by seven Massachusetts commercial and Medicaid health
plans and includes more than 3,000 providers, 50 health centers, and a total of
over 340 health care organizations and practices as partners. Any provider in
Massachusetts can use the program with any patient, regardless of health
insurance status, by using a simple referral form available on www.quitworks.org.