This week’s featured practice is DeSoto Family Medical Center. As a primary care provider, one focus of DeSoto’s quality improvement efforts has been to bolster preventive screenings in as many areas as possible. Here, we highlight their success in increasing tobacco screening and cessation interventions. 

DeSoto Family Medical Center is a small, 6 person team of physicians, nurses, and administrative staff that serves DeSoto County in northern Mississippi. They provide routine primary healthcare that is patient-centric, family-focused, and meets the highest standards of care. 

At the start of TCPI, DeSoto’s tobacco screening rate was already nearly 75%. They looked to their EHR as a tool to bump this figure even higher. First, they programmed reminders to be sent to clinical staff to verify all patients were being screened. Next, they built in a hard stop in the EHR where data had to be entered into the patient’s chart to proceed. Results are discussed during the patient visit, and patients can access the results after the fact via the patient portal as well. The team increased the frequency of reviewing data and reports so any discrepancies and gaps could be addressed. 

These simple changes increased screenings from 74% to 98%. This story shows that even high performing practices can find areas for continuous quality improvement, often by utilizing technology and other tools. You can read DeSoto’s full story here.