While any physician referral increases the odds that patients will seek smoking cessation services, when the referral is done electronically, the odds the patient will seek help increase exponentially, according to the results of one study documented by Health Data Management.
The Texas program, which encourages the use of CollaborNet health information exchange to make the referrals, resulted in 1,200 referrals from 27 providers, compared to just seven the previous year.
The program is now being tested with rural hospitals, which tend to have a higher rate of patients who smoke.