Using a Teachable Moment Communication Process to Improve Outcomes of Quitline Referrals

This study will compare the effectiveness of two approaches for delivering smoking cessation advice in the primary care setting. Ask-Advise-Connect (AAC) is a strategy that uses the electronic health record (EHR) to prompt clinical staff to Ask if the patient smokes, Advise them to quit and, if they're interested, Connect them to Quitline (QL) counseling services. The connection occurs when a QL counselor is notified of the patient's interest, and then calls the patient to enroll in treatment. AAC has been shown to be very effective at enrolling patients, however, it was found that less than 42% of patients who agreed to be referred were successfully contacted by the QL after 5 call attempts. This indicates that many patients that are referred are not ready for cessation, but may feel obligated to accept the referral from their primary care team. This presents an opportunity to improve the patient centeredness of the referral process.

To overcome these limitations, the investigators propose pairing it with a patient-centered smoking cessation approach called the Teachable Moments Communication Process (TMCP). The investigators' team developed this communication strategy, which incorporates patients' concerns into a partnership-oriented discussion about smoking cessation. The investigators propose that combining these two approaches could increase appropriate referrals to the QL, increase the likelihood of successful patient contact and enrollment, and increase the patient's rating of the value of the experience.