Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a top-ranked private research university serving more than 10,000 students in Ohio. As a recipient of a 2015 National Service and Civic Engagement Research Competition grant, Case Western Reserve studied an AmeriCorps program at University Hospitals of Cleveland, the largest healthcare provider in northeast Ohio and an affiliate hospital of CWRU.
Through the hospital, the program trained AmeriCorps members to serve as coaches and deliver a tobacco cessation intervention in primary care practices to patients who smoke. As part of the AmeriCorps research grant, the university measured the impact of the coaches on providers’ likelihood to address tobacco use in visits with patients, the quit rates of smokers at six-month follow-up appointments, and revenue generated by practices that bill for referring patients to AmeriCorps service members to help quit smoking.
Initial study findings showed that providers are 10 times more likely to address tobacco cessation with smokers when a coach is available. The study also found that patients quit at a rate of 40 percent at six-month follow-up appointments, and that the average revenue generated for a referral to the service member was $11 per referral, across all insurance types.
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