The Hawkesbury & District General Hospital (HGH) recently celebrated 10 years of partnership with the Ottawa Heart Institute’s Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation (OMSC) on November 15. The hospital said in a press release that since implementation of the OMSC at HGH, nearly 2,300 smokers have been reached through personalized, best practice tobacco dependence treatment, resulting in increased quit attempts and long-term cessation. An estimated 700 smokers are smoke-free as a result of the support they received while at the hospital. In 2002, smoking cessation experts at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute developed the Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation–an institutional program that systematically identifies, provides treatment, and offers follow-up to patients who smoke as part of routine care. In 2006, UOHI began to assist other inpatient, outpatient and primary care settings to implement the OMSC. Implementation of the OMSC led to an absolute 11 per cent increase in long-term quit rates among hospitalized patients (from 18 per cent to 29 per cent at six months). In Eastern Ontario, nearly 100,000 smokers have been assisted through Ottawa Model programs, leading to approximately 25,000 people quitting.
Source: Hawkesbury General Hospital
