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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – As part of the Million Hearts national initiative, Jamestown Regional Medical Center was recently awarded an “S” grant from the North Dakota Department of Health (NDDoH) to provide smoking cessation help for its patients.
The Million Hearts initiative has a goal of preventing one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. The program focuses on the “ABCs” of heart disease and stroke prevention, which include Appropriate aspirin therapy for those who need it, Blood pressure control, Cholesterol management and Smoking cessation.
Million Hearts grant funds awarded through the NDDoH are to be used to assess tobacco use of all patients within the grantee health-care system; establish Cessation Centers in health-care systems in North Dakota to provide patients with tobacco cessation counseling; serve as a resource for medications to assist in quitting tobacco; and direct patients to assistance using NDQuits, if necessary.
The Jamestown Regional Medical Center plans to use its funds to implement a consistent, organization-wide tobacco assessment of patients, send two staff to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for Tobacco Treatment Specialist certification, and to provide tobacco cessation counseling for patients. Jamestown Regional Medical Center is now a tobacco-free environment.
“Tobacco use can adversely affect a person’s health in so many ways. It can cause disease in nearly every organ of the body,” said Emily Kjelland, Cardiopulmonary Rehab and Wellness Manager at JRMC. “Quitting tobacco can be a tough thing, but it’s also one of the most important things a person can do to improve his or her health”
In North Dakota, nearly 22 percent of adults smoke and more than half of them try to quit every year. Many people try quitting several times before they are successful. Studies have shown that quitting using counseling and professional advice, along with using FDA-approved medications for tobacco cessation, greatly improves the likelihood of success.
“Advising and helping our patients to quit smoking and using tobacco has a double benefit of saving lives and saving money,” said Kjelland. “Those who quit likely will have fewer health problems and there will be fewer costs to the health-care system. Most importantly, those who quit will live longer, healthier lives.”
In addition to quitting smoking, people can reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke by getting a checkup with a health-care professional to determine their risk and decide if taking a daily aspirin is advised, monitoring and controlling their blood pressure, eating healthy foods and exercising.
For more information about tobacco cessation efforts at Jamestown Regional Medical Center, contact Emily Kjelland, 952-4761.