Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP James L. Holly, M.D. Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP


Your Life Your Health - LESS Initiative: Lose the smokes
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Becky Bowman
March 07, 2005
The Beaumont Enterprise
Dr. James L. Holly wants his patients to stop smoking- and he's not taking "no" for an answer.

At Southeast Texas Medical Associates, under the Lose Weight-Exercise-Stop-Smoking, or LESS, initiative, doctors are working to help their patients lose weight, get moving and snuff out the nicotine habit.

They're not taking the issue lightly. If patients don't quit or make a good-faith effort to quit smoking within 30 days. Dr. James L Holly, the practice's chief executive officer, won't hesitate to show them the door.

"I'm not going to let you be co-dependent on me," Holly said of smokers. "We'll dismiss them from our practice."

"The three greatest factors that can change a person's health for the better are weight loss, exercise and smoking cessation," Holly said. That's why he's being so up-front about the program.

The idea of dismissing a patient from a practice, Holly acknowledged, might seem a bit harsh.

"Oh yeah, we're tough," he said.

But it's not unethical, said Pam Baggett, media and public relations director for the Texas Medical Association.

As long as they help them find another physician, it's not ethically problematic, Baggett said. Physicians also must treat a patient in an emergency.

Sometimes such an ultimatum may be the only way to get a patient to do something to get healthy, said Dr. Bohn Allen, association president.

"In some ways, I think the doctors ought to be commended for taking action for trying to get people to do what they need to do to keep themselves well," Allen said Thursday via phone from Arlington.

The LESS initiative falls within the scope of a report known as Healthy Vision 2010, written by the association, Allen said. The report finds Texans need to do more to maintain their health and to decrease health-care costs in the coming decades.

"We're going to be older," Allen said. "We're going to be more obese. We're going to be less educated. We're going to be sicker."

Smoking increases health-care costs by contributing to disease and insurance costs, Allen said. Many insurance companies offer lower premiums to patients who are willing to verify that they do not smoke, he said.

The same cost proposals could eventually apply to SETMA in the form of premium discounts for such an aggressive preventative program, Holly said.

The initiative already has had other positive effects for the clinic, he said. Patients have been able to take advantage of the no-frills approach to health care and improve their lives, Holly said.

Orange resident Lawrence "Buddy" Lasyone, 63, went to the diabetic clinic at SETMA several weeks ago after being diagnosed.

Since then, Lasyone has lost more than 20 pounds, dropping from 308 to 286.

"They couldn't believe it," he said. "I'm feeling beautiful. I feel a difference, really and truly. I'm really feeling good."

Lasyone said he lost the weight by cutting back on what he eats and concentrating on eating healthy foods, things he learned at SETMA.

"I'm eating salads, and you can go by Luby's and order that low-end platter," he said.

The "culture of change" also has raised enthusiasm for healthy living at SETMA.

"It's kind of organized a steamroller in this practice," Holly said.