Smoke-free zone: Seven hospitals band together
No smoking at Bucks County, PA, campuses
The air is clear in public buildings, restaurants, and even many bars across America. So why should anyone light up even within a few steps of a hospital?
The seven hospitals in Bucks County, PA, decided that no one should — and they collaborated to become completely smoke-free. By July 4, employees, visitors, patients, vendors and contract workers will be prohibited from smoking anywhere on hospital property.
"Smoking causes so many diseases and so many preventable illnesses, we're making a statement to the community that we're walking the walk and talking the talk," says Lynn Martinsen, MPH, CHES, health risks program manager for the Bucks County Health Improvement Partnership in Langhorne, PA. "We should not allow people on the property to smoke.
"You shouldn't have an employee sitting outside smoking a cigarette while a newborn is being discharged and having their first exit to the world walking through a cloud of smoke," she says.
The Bucks County Health Improvement Partnership is a collaboration that began 14 years ago as a way to address health needs in the county. The CEOs meet regularly, and seven task forces address needs that have been identified in the community. For example, the hospitals support a clinic that provides free services in a disadvantaged part of the county. The partnership also launched a "Hearts and Soles" campaign to promote lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
So taking on smoking seemed a natural measure for the hospitals. They already restricted smoking to a designated area or smoking hut on the premises.
The new policy goes farther: "There will be no smoking on any property owned by any one of the seven hospitals. That includes vehicles. Employees no longer will be able to smoke within any vehicle owned by any one of the seven hospitals," explains Martinsen.
By coordinating their programs, the hospitals were able to increase awareness and share ideas. They also are following the lead of hundreds of hospitals. According to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights (www.no-smoke.org), more than 600 hospitals have 100% smoke-free campuses.
"Our hospitals are the largest employers in the county," says Lambert Tolbert, MEd, TSP [tobacco smoke pollution] coordinator for the Bucks County Tobacco Control Project in Warminster, PA, which worked with the partnership on its efforts. "We hope to use [the initiative] to move [smoke-free policies] along in Bucks County."
Listening to smokers
The hospitals were resolute about their smoke-free plans — but they were also sensitive to the employees who smoke.
St. Luke's Quakertown Hospital, the first to go completely smoke-free, informed employees in May 2006 that the campus would be smoke-free as of Jan. 1, 2007. Some nonsmoking employees had actually been asking for the policy, which prevents employees from walking outside on their breaks to smoke in the parking lot or near entrances.
The hospital held a focus group and obtained feedback from smokers as the smoke-free plans were unveiled. The hospital's medical director, a former smoker, helped lead the meeting.
"Of course, the smokers were concerned," says Shelley Maley, director of human resources. "They felt their rights were being violated. They weren't happy about it. But they did say, if this is a rule, we'll follow it. We told them, 'If you don't want to quit smoking, you don't have to. But you can't smoke at work.'"
The hospital offered smoking cessation classes and promoted the policy at an employee health fair that coincided with the Great American Smoke-Out, an annual national campaign to promote smoking cessation sponsored by the American Cancer Society. On the menu: A "cold-turkey" lunch.
St. Luke's Quakertown also launched a marketing campaign, with signs at every entrance and on every trash can reminding visitors and employees of the policy. The hospital used resources from the Michigan Smoke-Free Hospitals program, created by the University of Michigan Health System. (For more information, see checklist.)
Effective communication, including training of midlevel managers, is the key to success of a new smoke-free policy, says Linda A. Thomas, MS, program manager for the Tobacco Consultation Service at the University of Michigan Health System, which went smoke-free in 1999.
After Jan. 1, other Bucks County hospitals became smoke-free in a staggered fashion. In addition to St. Luke's, the hospitals are: Grand View Hospital, Warminster Hospital, Doylestown Hospital, St. Mary Medical Center, Lower Bucks Hospital, and Frankford Hospital.
"Each one had to take a period of time to meet and decide on these factors and what to offer their employees [for smoking cessation]," says Martinsen.
As more hospitals become 100% smoke-free nationally, the policy becomes more easily accepted, says Thomas. "In 10 or 15 years, people will say, 'I can't believe they ever allowed smoking around hospitals,'" she says. "We're changing norms."
(Editor's note: Information about creating a smoke-free campus is available at www.med.umich.edu/mfit/tobacco/freeenvironment.htm and www.no-smoke.org/goingsmokefree.php?id=449.)
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