Office Champions Is Seeking Applicants for Second Wave of Tobacco Cessation Project

On the heels of a successful pilot project, the AAFP is taking its Office Champions Tobacco Cessation National Dissemination Project nationwide. The Academy currently is recruiting 50 family medicine practices for the quality improvement project, which teaches office staff to implement system changes to promote the integration of tobacco cessation activities into daily office routines.

Based largely on the AAFP's evidence-based Ask and Act program, the Office Champions pilot sought to facilitate practices' efforts to increase the percentage of patient charts that included documentation of tobacco use status and the percentage of charts that included documentation that patients were offered help to stop using tobacco products. Another goal was to help physicians delegate some of the responsibility for smoking cessation efforts to office staff members.

According to the pilot's final report (19-page PDF; About PDFs), participating practices successfully implemented 85 percent of the changes they identified in their implementation plans, and 98 percent of practices expressed confidence that the changes they made could be sustained.

Many of the changes were based on a practice toolkit provided by the Academy that includes the following resources:

Each participating practice selects an office champion to lead the project and a physician champion to ensure that the selectee has the support of staff. Office champions complete a training program using an online training module, live teleconferences, and a practice manual, after which they identify and implement system changes to better integrate tobacco cessation activities into daily office routines and create a tobacco-free culture. Each office champion is responsible for submitting an implementation plan to the AAFP and for tracking and reporting results.

As did the pilot, the project's second wave is targeting states with a smoking prevalence of greater than 20 percent. Sites will be selected to ensure a wide geographic representation, a range of practice types and sizes, and a variety of practice settings.

Thanks to a grant from Pfizer Inc., practices that complete the program will receive $2,000 to cover administrative costs, plus materials for patients and recognition for practices. Participating sites also will be recognized in American Family Physician and on the AAFP website.

The deadline to apply is May 8, and the application form (3-page Word file; About downloading) is available for downloading. Participating sites will be announced in late May, with implementation and evaluation planned for June through November of this year.