Quitting smoking is the best thing that a smoker can do to improve their health. Quitting is difficult and patients often need help, advice, and support from their provider(s). Unfortunately, the 2020 Surgeon General’s report on Smoking Cessation found that, “four out of every nine adult cigarette smokers who saw a health professional during the past year did not receive advice to quit.” This is a missed opportunity for providers to facilitate the quitting process. Especially given that smokers consistently cite a doctor’s advice to quit as an important motivator to attempt quitting.

Quality measures are a tool to track provider behavior and patient outcomes. When used for tobacco cessation, measures can encourage providers to help smokers quit and connect patients to cessation resources. This webcast will discuss what quality measures, how they are developed and maintained and how they can be used to encourage tobacco cessation. The webinar will also highlight how Missouri’s Medicaid program is using tobacco cessation quality measures.

As a result of this webcast, participants will be able to:

• Describe how healthcare quality measures are developed and maintained.
• List the different ways quality measures can influence provider behavior.
• Identify the quality measures aimed at improving tobacco cessation outcomes.