January 11, 2011 - A report in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that phone calls to discharged smokers encouraging them to quit smoking could yield significant health and economic gains. It is estimated that more than 300,000 smokers hospitalized each year survive myocardial infarction. A follow up phone call, done five times over three months encouraging them to quit, could have a big impact. Most hospitals already provide in-hospital smoking cessation counseling but few hospitals follow up on patients’ habits once they are discharged from the hospital even though 6 to 7 out 10 of them will still be smoking a year later.

If smoking cessation counseling is provided to the estimated 300,000 discharged smokers, approximately 50,000 of them would quit smoking in the first year which would prevent 1,400 heart attacks and save 8,000 lives. The study concludes by suggesting Medicare and other health insurers should consider making follow-up phone calls for hospitalized smokers a quality measure they support.

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