'Call It Quits' program honored
Affinity Health System's tobacco cessation program given award
10 / 24 / 2006
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Maria Nelson, Media Relations
Affinity Health System
(920) 720-1752
(920) 554-0686 (pager)
MENASHA, Wis. – Affinity Health System’s Call It Quits Tobacco Cessation program, administered through Affinity NurseDirect, was named a Pinnacle award winner in the 2006 ICARE Awards program sponsored by McKesson Corp.
Affinity NurseDirect offers the Call It Quits program through its 24-hour telehealth line. The program provides a multi-component approach to tobacco cessation by using telephone counseling to assess an individual’s tobacco habit and readiness to quit, and then developing a personalized cessation plan to help the individual successfully stop tobacco usage.
In addition to the telephone counseling, the program includes classes that are offered to provide the right combination of education and support to help participants quit and remain tobacco-free for life.
In eight years, the ‘Call It Quits’ program has helped 2,681 people to quit using tobacco. During this time, 55 percent of participants reported a quite rate at three months, 56 percent reported a quit rate at one year, and 78 percent of participants were satisfied with the program at one year.
McKesson Corp. is a health care services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality health care by reducing costs, streamlining processes and improving the quality and safety of patient care. The ICARE Awards are based on a set of shared principles used to encourage and evaluate conduct within McKesson. These principles represent basic values, ethics and standards that each McKesson employee lives by daily, professionally and personally. Through the years, McKesson has invited its customers to share their stories of success, accomplishments and examples of service.
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For the Editor:
Affinity Health System, a faith-based regional health care network, is the Fox Valley’s second-largest employer, according to the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry. For the fourth consecutive year, Affinity has been named one of the nation’s top 64 health systems based on clinical performance according to Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care. For ten consecutive years, Affinity Health System has been named to the SDI (formerly Verispan) Integrated Health Network Top 100, an annual assessment of the 100 most highly integrated health care networks in the nation. Both St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton and Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh rank among the top 1 percent of hospitals nationwide in terms of quality and efficiency, as determined by the 2007 Premier | CareScience Select practice National Quality Award. Members of Affinity include Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Health Foundation, Oshkosh; St. Elizabeth Hospital and the St. Elizabeth Hospital Foundation, Appleton; Affinity Medical Group, a regional network of 25 family practice and specialty clinics – 22 of which are recognized as NCQA Level III medical homes, the highest level of recognition – in 14 communities; Calumet Medical Center, Chilton; and Affinity Occupational Health.