The feasibility of a novel national quality improvement programme for tobacco dependency treatment pathways in acute UK hospitals.

Introduction: The prevalence of smoking remains stubbornly high in the UK despite comprehensive tobacco control measures. A national quality improvement (QI) approach to enhance the treatment of an estimated 1,000,000 annual hospital admissions of tobacco smokers could provide a new opportunity to improve population health and reduce healthcare demand. Barriers to QI include knowledge, costs and competing demands. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a national QI programme hosted by the British Thoracic Society, focused on improving NHS tobacco dependency treatment in acute hospitals.

Methods: The programme utilised the Model for Improvement as its QI framework and was delivered over a 6-month period. 25 teams from across the UK were upskilled through a series of webinars and coaching sessions and undertook QI projects focused on specific areas of their local tobacco dependency treatment pathways.

Results: Results of the programme demonstrated improvements across the treatment pathway including screening for smoking status, rapid provision of nicotine replacement therapy to prevent nicotine withdrawal, referrals to inpatient tobacco dependency treatment teams and transfers of care to community services. Other programme outcomes included increases in QI knowledge, confidence and attitudes along with enhanced project management skills.

Conclusion: This novel, national, online QI programme supported participating multidisciplinary teams in acute trusts across the UK to deliver tobacco dependency treatment pathway improvements using QI tools and methodology. This programme demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of delivering a national QI programme, at low cost using a microsystems approach applied to an important area of clinical medicine.