The NYS Health Department is encouraging all physicians and other medical professionals to help smokers quit by screening all patients for tobacco use, advising smokers to quit, and providing assistance to patients including counseling and medication. “Your Patients Are Listening” is the second phase of the award-winning “Don’t Be Silent About Smoking” campaign launched last year by the State Health Department’s Tobacco Control Program and its 19 Cessation Centers across the state.

NWH was one of five hospitals around the State chosen to host the kick-off event. The Hospital was selected because of the success of its cessation program—a four-week program developed in tandem with the Mount Kisco Medical Group which provides educational and emotional support for people of all ages who want to quit smoking. NWH also was the first acute care hospital in Westchester County to become a smoke-free campus on January 1.

The event featured a display of the campaign ads and a short program of remarks on how clinicians can do more to help their patients quit smoking. Speakers included Jamie Conklin, director of the POW’R to be Tobacco Free Cessation Center, American Lung Association in NY; Michael Seilback, vice president of Public Policy & Communications, American Lung Association in NY; Marla Koroly, MD, chief medical officer of NWH; and Anne Bresnahan, a Westchester resident and lifelong smoker who participated in NWH’s cessation program and has been smoke-free for a month.

“Doctors often assume that their patients are aware of the need to stop smoking,” said Dr. Koroly, emphasizing the importance of the State’s new campaign. “We sometimes underestimate how much influence we have through the doctor-patient relationship. It is our obligation to make quitting smoking a priority when treating our patients.”

Tobacco addiction is the leading preventable cause of death in New York. Approximately 25,500 New Yorkers die every year from smoking-related illnesses.