AllianceHealth Durant Collaborates with OHA to Present Successful Tobacco Treatment Initiative at the 2017 Oklahoma Rural Health Conference

7/16/2017

AllianceHealth Durant hospital staff members, Corrine Hunter, Sally Crites and Jean Sampier recently attended the 2017 Oklahoma Rural Health Conference. AllianceHealth Durant, along with OHA staff and Hospitals Helping Patients Quit initiative (HHPQ) presented tobacco cessation system change best practices and lessons learned at the 2017 Oklahoma Rural Health Conference.

“Helping our community live longer and lead a healthier lifestyle is one of the core values at AllianceHealth Durant,” said Corrine Hunter, Chief Quality Officer of AllianceHealth Durant. “The goal of our tobacco cessation program is to teach participants skills to deal with not smoking, while also addressing other issues such as physical addiction and psychological dependency. Our program provides the support, information and resources needed to assist someone in quitting smoking.”

The presentation highlighted the tremendous success of the tobacco treatment program at AllianceHealth Durant. Since November of 2014, AllianceHealth Durant has provided tobacco treatment services to thousands of patients with over 700 patients being referred to the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline for follow up tobacco cessation services. It is estimated through these quit rates the hospital has saved over 700 years of life and more than a half million dollars in cost associated with tobacco use and related disease.

“AllianceHealth Durant has done a tremendous job with their tobacco treatment program. Not only are they fully committed to providing evidence based cessation services to their patients, they are continually working to enhance outcomes from their tobacco treatment program. Each year of participation they have at least doubled referrals to the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline from the previous year. They have fully embraced this health improvement initiative and should be congratulated for it,” said Eric Finley, Tobacco Cessation Coordinator at the Oklahoma Hospital Association.

The HHPQ initiative is funded through a grant from the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund. Since 2010, Oklahoma hospitals have referred over 20,000 patients, family members, visitors and health system employees to the Helpline.

To learn more about your options to help quit smoking call the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669), visit www.OKHelpLine.com.

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