Automating Tobacco Cessation in Primary Care

This study focuses on improving how primary care teams identify patients who smoke and offer access to nicotine replacement therapy, or NRT. NRT includes medications such as nicotine patches, gum, or lozenges that can reduce cravings and support people who are interested in cutting back or quitting smoking. Although NRT is an evidence-based treatment option, it is not always discussed or prescribed during routine primary care visits. To better understand how NRT can be offered in primary care, the project will test a workflow at Penn Family Care that identifies patients who currently smoke and provides information about available tobacco treatment options. Edward Cooper Internal Medicine will serve as a comparison site. Patients who smoke and/or are prescribed NRT will also receive a 30-day follow-up survey to learn whether they received, picked up, or used NRT; whether it was useful; and what barriers they experienced.

Inclusion Criteria: * Age 18 years or older * Patient at Penn Family Care or Edward Cooper Internal Medicine * Had an eligible scheduled or completed practice visit categorized as a new annual visit, return patient visit, return annual visit, or return patient sick visit * For the tobacco cessation intervention: Penn Family Care patient who had not previously completed the tobacco questionnaire * For the 30-day follow-up survey: Active smoker in the EHR as of the completed visit date or prescribed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) between 3 days before and 30 days after the completed visit date * For the primary analysis: Active smoker in the EHR as of the completed visit date * For the primary analysis: Did not have an NRT prescription between 34 and 4 days before the completed visit date Exclusion Criteria: * None except as specified in inclusion criteria.