Enhancing eReferral Capacity: A Strategy for Increasing Cessation among Priority Populations and Encouraging Health System Change

Through Meaningful Use, the federal government requires healthcare organizations to demonstrate increased efficiency of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). This has created a demand for quitlines to replace current fax referral with  eReferral systems in which healthcare organizations can make a patient referral directly from the EMR to the quitline and receive a feedback report to the EMR.  Eleven service providers operate the 53 state quitlines. Five service providers have the capacity to conduct eReferrals and six do not have the capacity. This project will engage the six quitline service providers that do not have the capacity for eReferral in an 18-month project to develop capacity. 

The overall goal of the project is to deliver effective quitline services to more smokers, especially those in priority populations, by establishing a national capacity to implement eReferral systems between state quitlines and healthcare organizations. We will establish six state teams that include a quitline service provider (that does not have eReferral capacity), the state quitline funder and a healthcare organization that serves priority populations. These teams will receive technical assistance on implementing eReferral and their progress will be monitored. Three products will be developed and disseminated during this project: a technical tool on implementing eReferral, a resource on developing successful eReferral partnerships, and a series of case studies documenting the challenges and successes of the six state teams. The evaluation will assess state team success on eReferral, number of referrals, reach to priority populations, national capacity for eReferral, and development and dissemination of products.