70% of smokers say they want to quit. Often, though, their doctors aren’t proactive about helping them. One San Antonio physician says health professionals can probably do more to aid with smoking cessation.
63-year-old Donna Spelce of San Antonio has been smoking a long time. Actually, more than five decades. Like most people who have picked up the habit, she’d like to stop.
“I did quit for nine months,” she said, “then I started back again.”
Her doctor, Rodolfo Urby, MD, MPH, MBA, V.P., Sr. Medical Director of Community First Health Plans, said tobacco is related to more than 30 different causes of death.
“The number one most preventable cause of death that we can influence is smoking,” Urby commented.
And yet, only 70% of family physicians ask their patients if they use tobacco. Only 40% take action.
Studies show that patients are more satisfied with their health care of their provider offers smoking cessation interventions, even if they’re not quite ready to quit.
“I know he’s doing it to help me,” Spelce stated. “It just makes you feel good knowing somebody else care.”
“The 19-year-old who’s not smoking? I still talk about it,” Urby stressed. “Because they’re going to go to college and their peers, that pressure will always be there, so it’s good to at least address it. And it doesn’t take very long to do so.”
Most insurance companies now cover at least some type of drugs of therapy to help patients snuff out the habit.
Spelce said now that she’s dealing with so many other health issues, she’s more determined than ever to quit. “I’m going to give it my best shot,” she said.
Urby recently talked to medical students at the U.T. Health Science Center in San Antonio about counseling with their patients who are smokers. He reminded them that for patients, sometimes caring questions from a physicians are all it takes to spur a smoker to action.
