How to help your patients stop smoking.

Family physicians can effectively help their patients stop smoking by using brief intervention and simple office organizational procedures. Intervention involves asking all patients about smoking, advising smokers to stop, assisting with self-help materials, establishing a date for quitting, possibly prescribing nicotine gum and, finally, arranging for follow-up visits. Office procedures include selecting an office coordinator, ensuring a smoke-free office, establishing a mechanism to identify and monitor patients who smoke, and involving the office staff in intervention and follow-up. With this protocol, intervention is possible at every office visit.