This FAQ provides guidance on the Tobacco Cessation measure, including patient eligibility, qualifying tobacco use, smoking-cessation interventions, documentation requirements, new data fields, follow-up timeframes, and data-submission periods. Coordinators and abstractors should use this document to support consistent data abstraction and reporting across participating hospitals.
A: No. This measure includes patients who are current smokers who had an elective procedure.
A: No. There is only one P4P goal and one VBR goal. Hospitals participating in BMC2 Vascular Surgery will enter pre-procedure smoking cessation data and post-procedure smoking cessation data that is within 90 days from the procedure end date. We will pull these data together for one P4P and one VBR goal. All the data will go into one measure.
A: Correct. Current smokers using non-tobacco products are excluded from the numerator and denominator.
A: Correct. BMC2 collects data on patients who smoke marijuana only.
A: Yes. You can enter NRT the same way you would enter “medications prior to admission” or “medications at discharge.”
A: According to the BMC2 VS Data Dictionary the definition of “Current Smoker” is “Indicate if the patient has smoked cigars, cigarettes, chew (tobacco), pipe (tobacco), marijuana, or used a smokeless device to inhale nicotine (vaping, e-cigarettes) any time during the past one month prior to arrival at your facility.”
A: PCI aligns with their national registry, NCDR. NCDR defines “current smoker” as current smokers as patient who are smoking on admission. As before, BMC2 PCI cannot deviate from the national definition. BMC2 will not have strict alignment across Vascular Surgery and PCI on that specific part of the measure.
A: The new data fields will be added to the BMC2 VS 30-day and 1-year follow-up on September 9, 2026. This date is the first day of the Q3 2026 data collection period.
A: Yes. Whoever is taking care of the patient for that procedure you are entering into REDCap is part of the “vascular surgery clinical team.”
A: BMC2 Vascular Surgery revised the data collection timeframe for the follow-up forms last year. Enter on the 30-day follow-up form outcomes that occurred within 2 weeks to month 5 after the date of discharge. Enter on the 1-year follow-up form outcomes that occurred within 6 months to 14 months after the date of discharge.
A: The BMC2 Coordinating Center will check to make sure that the data entry collection periods line up so that all 90-day post-event smoking cessation interventions can be entered with the applicable collection period.
A: Yes, smoking cessation initiatives apply to all elective, urgent, emergency, and salvage cases.
Q: Yes, if the office visit fits within the episode of care parameters, please code "yes" to physician delivered advice.
