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Staying
Quit
By Betty Marton
Anthony DeGeorge and Geraldine
Cruz-DeGeorge, both pack-a-day
smokers, tried several times to quit.
But it never stuck, so when they
decided to marry, they realized they
needed a different approach.
“My main concern was that I’d be
craving a cigarette during the wedding
and the reception,” said Ms. Cruz-
DeGeorge, a nurse on 6Monti at North
Shore University Hospital. “I didn’t
want that.”
More than a year before their 2007
wedding, the couple reached out to the
North Shore-LIJ Center for Tobacco
Control (CTC) for help withdrawing
from cigarettes — the leading
preventable cause of death and disease
in the world. Based on guidelines from
the Centers for Disease Control, the
center’s quit-smoking program offers
employees and community members
quitting and maintenance strategies
plus individual and group support.
Open 24/7, the CTC also educates
healthcare providers throughout the
metro New York region about how to help
their patients.
Approximately 4,000 people —
including 630 employees — have taken
advantage of the program’s counseling,
nicotine replacement products and
medications between 1999 and 2010. And
since the health system implemented a
smoking ban on all properties in 2010,
an additional 185 people have taken the
challenge. According to Pat Folan, RN,
director of the center, the numbers include
repeat clients, because many people try many
times before they’re successful.
“We can get almost everyone to quit,”
she explained. “It’s staying quit that’s
difficult, so if one approach doesn’t work,
we try different strategies.”
The six-week program focuses on
keeping people comfortable while they break
the habit. The DeGeorges first contacted
the CTC in January 2006 and set a stopsmoking
date of February 1. Whenever they
felt their commitment waver, they met with
or emailed Ms. Folan and other CTC staff
members for support.
“They made sure they were always
available for whatever we needed,”
said Mr. DeGeorge, communications
supervisor at Center for Emergency
Medical Services.
As an added incentive, as part of its
health benefits program, North Shore-LIJ
awards employees a $10 per paycheck credit
to lower their health insurance premiums
for those who pledge to be tobacco-free.
And the DeGeorges have an additional
incentive: plans to begin a family.
“It’s good to look forward to having
children and not to have to worry about
smoking,” Ms. Cruz-DeGeorge said.
Get help kicking the habit at
NorthShoreLIJ.com/stopsmoking or
(516) 466-1980.
Above: With their wedding on the horizon, the
couple decided to get healthier beginning in 2006.
The New Standard 31