Vermont Health Care Provider Education Initiative

"New technologies support traditional training methods for
healthcare providers on tobacco"

Healthcare providers are an influential force in smokers' lives when they offer encouragement to quit. In 1996, the US Public Health Service's clinical practice guideline on smoking cessation stressed the importance of clinicians discussing smoking at every office visit. Yet, while 70% of Vermont's smokers see a physician in any given year, the state's 2006 Adult Tobacco Survey indicates that only 20% of them said that their provider recommended any of Vermont's free, state-of-the-art tobacco treatment services and pharmacotherapy resources. Intervening with the 70% of smokers during their health check-up would have a major effect on reducing tobacco use, tobacco-related diseases, and health care costs in Vermont.

The Vermont Department of Health contracted with JSI to provide training and ongoing technical assistance to medical providers wanting to systematically intervene with patients who smoke. Adopting distance-based technologies to orient key personnel from practice sites to the Provider Education Initiative helped clear the way for the program to be adopted in nearly two dozen locations. In one-hour web-based teleconferences, JSI reviewed the evidence for intervening with smokers at every visit and gave participants the chance discuss the program, ask questions, and gain confidence that implementing changes in their practices would be beneficial and feasible. As a result of these teleconferences, the program was adopted in four community health center sites and by the Vermont Coalition of Clinics for the Uninsured which serves nine sites around the state.

In JSI's onsite trainings, members of health care teams come together to assess their current practice systems and develop action plans to implement changes. Afterward, all participants have access to an online workspace to help them to easily connect and share ideas with one another. The project space features reference documents and patient education materials for download. A message board allows staff to discuss their experiences with the program and to ask questions. Janet Van Ness, the project director notes, "For practices willing to make these systematic changes, the opportunity to continue the discussion and problem-solve online encourages providers to keep up their efforts."

Another round of web-based provider education teleconferences is scheduled, and JSI will adapt the basic training curriculum to an e-learning format for new clinic staff who must quickly get up-to-speed on the program. Collaboration with the Vermont Department of Health to develop additional web-based learning opportunities on more advanced topics in tobacco are also planned.

Learn more about the Vermont Health Care Provider Education Initiative

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