Introduction Smoking during pregnancy poses serious risks to baby and mother. Few disseminable programs exist to help pregnant women quit or reduce their smoking. We hypothesized that an SMS text-delivered scheduled gradual reduction (SGR) program plus support texts would outperform SMS support messages alone. Methods We recruited 314 pregnant women from 14 prenatal clinics. Half of the women received theory-based support messages throughout their pregnancy to promote cessation and prevent relapse. The other half received the support messages plus alert texts that gradually reduced their smoking more than 3–5 weeks. We conducted surveys at baseline, end of pregnancy, and 3 months postpartum. Our primary outcome was biochemically validated 7-day point prevalence abstinence at late pregnancy. Our secondary outcome was reduction in cigarettes per day. Results Adherence to the SGR was adequate with 70% responding to alert texts to smoke within 60 minutes. Women in both arms quit smoking at the same rate (9%–12%). Women also significantly reduced their smoking from baseline to the end of pregnancy from nine cigarettes to four; we found no arm differences in reduction. Conclusions Support text messages alone produced significant quit rates above naturally occurring quitting. SGR did not add significantly to helping women quit or reduce. Sending support messages can reach many women and is low-cost. More obstetric providers might consider having patients who smoke sign up for free texting programs to help them quit. Implications A disseminable texting program helped some pregnant women quit smoking. Clinical Trial Registration number: NCT01995097.

Context. Many hospitalized patients receive care that is not concordant with their goals. Teaching communication skills that better align goals and treatment can improve the care that patients receive.Objective. To develop and test an innovative approach that encourages hospitalists to engage in goals of care (GOC) conversations with their patients.Methods. We recruited 14 hospitalists and randomized half to receive electronic health record alerts for patients who might benefit most from a goals-of-care conversation, as well as communication coaching. The coaching required an initial meeting, then audio recording of two GOC conversations and feedback from the coach. Outcomes were the presence of GOC conversations (primary), the quality of the GOC conversations, physician perceptions of the intervention, and hospital metrics (e.g., 30-day readmissions, referrals to palliative care).Results. We did not increase the frequency of GOC conversations but did improve the quality of the conversations. Patients of physicians who received the intervention had fewer 30-day readmission rates and were less likely to die 90 days after admission than patients of physicians in the control arm. Patients of intervention physicians also had fewer palliative care consults than patients of control physicians.Conclusions. Teaching hospitalists to have GOC conversations translated into better skills and outcomes for patients. This pilot study shows promise and should be tested in a larger trial.

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