Health Care and Service Providers

Health Care Providers Are Vital Partners to Help Patients Quit Tobacco

All health care and service providers play a critical role in giving patients the support and treatment they need to quit tobacco for good. Nicotine addiction is a chronic disease, but it can be successfully treated with behavioral and pharmaceutical support.

When providers ask about tobacco use and advise their patients to quit, it can double the chance that person will make a quit attempt.1 Offering brief, simple advice to patients about their quitting options helps increase the likelihood they will quit.2

Pharmacists in Oregon can now prescribe counseling and quit smoking medications on the spot.
If you are a pharmacist and are interested in providing quit tobacco services at your pharmacy, including free prescriptions for Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), click here to learn about the certification process through the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy.

Click here for a list of local pharmacies prescribing Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT).

Tobacco Cessation Counseling Guidesheet: Steps to Providing the 5A’s of Intervention
Successful intervention for tobacco cessation begins with identifying tobacco users and determining the appropriate interventions based upon the patient’s willingness to quit. The five major steps to tobacco cessation intervention are the “5 A’s:” ask, advise, assess, assist and arrange. Download the guidesheet.

Help Your Patients Quit Tobacco Use: An Implementation Guide for Community Health Centers
Download here.

The Million Hearts Tobacco Cessation Change Package
The Tobacco Cessation Change Package helps health care professionals in outpatient, inpatient and behavioral health settings, as well as public health professionals who partner with these groups, to implement systems and strategies that improve care for patients who use tobacco. Acknowledging the many demands that are already asked of providers and the health care system, this package provides a suite of tools to make it easier to integrate tobacco dependence treatment into routine care delivery.


Tobacco Treatment for Persons with Substance Use Disorders: A Toolkit for Substance Abuse Treatment Providers

Download here.

Implementing Tobacco Cessation Treatment for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness: A Quick Guide for Program Directors and Clinicians
Download here.

What’s New in Supporting Oregonians with Disabilities to be Tobacco-Free
Download here.

Why refer your patients to the Quit Line or other programs?
Research indicates that provider referral of patients to tobacco cessation programs is associated with a significantly higher participation rate than simply telling patients they should quit.

How to Send E-Referrals to the Quit Line Using Electronic Health/Medical Record Systems
Read these E-Referral Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). If E-Referrals are not feasible, the Fax Referral process can be used (see below).

How to Send Fax Referrals to the Quit Line

The Oregon Tobacco Quit Line: Fact Sheets and Resources:


Native Quit Line

A free program through the Oregon Quit Line especially for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Dedicated quit coaches understand and respect indigenous values and traditions. They provide tips, information, one-on-one counseling and medications proven to help people quit. The Native Quit Line is available 24/7 for people over age 18. Youth under 18 can contact the Oregon Quit Line for free help and support to quit tobacco. 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669), then press “7.”


Asian Smokers’ Quit Line

The Asian Smokers’ Quit Line offers free telephone counseling, self-help materials, nicotine patches and online help in four Asian languages—Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese—to help you quit smoking.

Tips From Former Smokers
The Tips campaign, which features real stories from people living with the serious long-term health impacts from tobacco use, has been running since 2012 and estimates that between 2012 and 2018, more than 16.4 million people who smoke have attempted to quit and approximately 1 million have successfully quit because of the Tips campaign.

In just two years, from 2017 to 2019, youth vaping in Oregon went up 80 percent.3  The younger someone starts to use nicotine, the harder it will be to quit, in part because it changes young people’s brain chemistry. Nearly 90 percent of people who smoke started before they turned 18.4

Vaping: Making Sense of What You’ve Been Hearing—Fact Sheet
A downloadable fact sheet about the serious health impacts of vaping and how to get help to quit promotes the This is Quitting teen campaign from the Truth Initiative and the Oregon Quit Line. It is available in five languages.

This is Quitting
A new mobile program that helps teens quit. Text messages provide age-appropriate messages to help young people feel motivated, inspired and supported throughout their quitting process.

Get Your Head Out of the Cloud
A guide and resources for parents and caregivers to use when talking to youth about the dangers of vaping.