Hospital Will No Longer Hire Smokers

[Lilacmedic]

Brilliant idea Dustdevil!

Can you imagine the peace and tranquility without mrs. PMS rearing her agro little head! lol

[Just Plain Ruff]

well this argument is pointless, the hospital can hire anyone they want. If they only want to hire non-smokers then so be it.

They are a place that takes health and healthy living seriously so if they don't want to hire smokers then that's their right.

If I was a business I would not want to hire a smoker either. And if I did hire the smoker then they would have to be smoke free while they worked there. That would be a requirement of employment.

Smokers rights smokers rights - well in my business there are no smokers rights just like this hospital.

Yes it's a choice and you can make that choice, but it's also a choice I have as well as the hospital has to not hire you.

If you don't like it TOUGH Cookies. It's my company.

[VentMedic]

There have been some really excellent posts. Since Florida decided smoking was not a protected right in 1995, I'm surprised this is a headline in the newspaper 12 years laters. Anyway, I going to post my own summary of my feelings about smoking, especially where the kids are concerned. Be fore warned, along with some facts and figures pulled from national organizations such as the Academy of Pediatrics, I express strong opinions for the rights of children and the elderly.

Against:

Smoking related illnesses costs insurances, Medicare and Medicaid, billions of dollars.

Lung disease patients don't always just die. They linger for years racking up impressive medical costs. This doesn't compare though to the suffering the patients and their families must endure.

More long term facilities needed to "warehouse" the ventilator dependent patients associated with smoking related illnesses. They are now being housed in the acute care hospitals occupying much needed bed space in the ICUs and at a serious cost.

Employees who smoke take an average of 5 more sick days per year.

Employees that smoke carry an offensive odor to some (both patients and co-workers). The same with perfumes which are already banned in patient care ares.

Tired of covering co-workers for cigarette breaks and then supposed to cover them again for their regular breaks since the cigarette breaks aren't true breaks.

Cigarette smoking parents contribute to the lung disease of their children. Parents who smoke are placing their children at a 40 per cent greater risk of developing asthma than children living with non-smoking parents.

The measured COHb (carboxyhemoglobin - carbon monoxide) level in a child's blood can range from 3 - 8% just from being inside a car with the parents smoking, essentially the same as the COHb level of the adults smoking. This is besides contributing to the other factors associated with reactive airway diseases.

There's also that little issue of women smoking and being around smokers during pregnancy.

Thus, now the children are a major cost factor in the insurances and government subsidized health programs.

A child diagnosed with asthma at an early age can easily need more than $1 million dollars in care by age 30. If this child also chooses to smoke as many do if the parents smoke, even with asthma, this may be a very conservative figure.

Asthmatic children of smoking parents are more likely to experience being on a ventilator during their childhood. They are also more likely to develop complications post operatively.

Now if you want to talk about the elderly non-smokers on very limited income who are forced to live with their adult children who smoke, I put that at a new form of elder abuse.

Pro:

The future looks good for Respiratory Therapists.

Con:

Rising costs of uninsured (and insured) smokers force cut backs in health care in other areas.

Employers will be forced to raise the out of pocket portion for medical insurances for all employees.

In summary:

To keep cigarette smokers smoking, it is at a considerable cost to others.

The very young and the very old who don't always have a voice need to be heard. Obviously Americans aren't doing too good when it comes to taking care of our health or the health of others especialy the previous and future generations. I don't like government regulating activities either but I also don't like seeing children with trachs in pre-school either.

[katbemeEMT-B]

But when compared to drunk driving and deaths the results are far different. Deaths due to drunk driving in 2006 averaged one death per every half an hour in the United States alone. These numbers are deaths only, it does not include those that were injured. The numbers would be staggering if it did. Yet, alcohol is still legal. While drinking and driving may be, most employers will not hold it against an employee unless they need to drive as part of their job.

Now I do agree that when at work you should have the respect for your fellow co-workers and patients and not smoke. But I also feel that once at home NO ONE has the right to dictate what you can and can not do. If you are showing up for work and doing your job, what right do they have?

[Dustdevil]

Unfortunately, alcohol doesn't linger in the system long enough to really test for routinely. Otherwise, I'd have no problem with it. Although, some of us need alcohol to get laid. You start talking about affecting my sex life and we're going to have a problem! 8)

Most smokers can't control their habit, and simply don't have the self discipline to make it through twelve-plus hours without a butt. That means they'll be sneaking out the back door, on the clock, to suck a fag. Or stewing in their own stench as they smoke half a pack in their car on the way to work. Twenty percent of American society imposing their habit on the other 80 percent simply isn't going to fly much longer, and now we are seeing the results of the majority fighting back.

Enjoy them while you can!

[flight-lp]

But when compared to drunk driving and deaths the results are far different. Deaths due to drunk driving in 2006 averaged one death per every half an hour in the United States alone. These numbers are deaths only, it does not include those that were injured. The numbers would be staggering if it did. Yet, alcohol is still legal. While drinking and driving may be, most employers will not hold it against an employee unless they need to drive as part of their job.

Now I do agree that when at work you should have the respect for your fellow co-workers and patients and not smoke. But I also feel that once at home NO ONE has the right to dictate what you can and can not do. If you are showing up for work and doing your job, what right do they have?

Actually I think you severly underestimate most employers. MANY will not hire a criminal convicted of a DWI / DUI for obvious and appropriate reasons. I know I certainly wouldn't. If an individual cannot make a simple decision between right and wrong concerning a legal and safety issue, then I don't want them. Next applicant please.............

I can understand your frustration about the perceived invasion of self believed rights, so lets examine this in a similar light to alcohol. Are you willing to stop smoking 8 - 12 hours prior to your shift at all times??

[wrenEMT]

I only have one thing to say.. We have a smoke free campus at hospital and at any property of the hospital and since 911 EMS is hospital owned you can't smoke at station. or in uniform or anything like that. SO... kinda makes it hard on down time, and I'm speaking as an EMT, not a hospital worker doesn't that suck just a bit? you can't even take off uniform shirt and be in parking lot and smoke, at station, not at hospital but at station. you would have to go across the street or something like that so you aren't seen.

Furthermore other EMS service I work at.. they are giving a 50 cent benefit per hour for those that don't smoke, or don't smoke at work. Only down side to that is that they don't offer to help you quit smoking either. So.. hrm 50 cents more an hour or my partner keep her sanity. And not try to kill me in return.. I think I will stick to smoking at least til I am done with somethings in life that are causing me a bit more stress than work Just my 2.5 cents hope you like it...

[VentMedic]

SO... kinda makes it hard on down time, and I'm speaking as an EMT, not a hospital worker doesn't that suck just a bit? you can't even take off uniform shirt and be in parking lot and smoke, at station, not at hospital but at station. you would have to go across the street or something like that so you aren't seen.

So...as an EMT you are not part of the healthcare profession?

[VentMedic]

Another Florida hospital stops smoking but slightly less harsh about the employment rules.

http://www.keysnews.com/317942768697686.bsp.htm

Hospital bans health-care workers from lighting upBY ANNE-MARGARET SOBOTA Citizen Staff

A nurse takes a quick last puff off her cigarette outside Lower Keys Medical Center before hurrying back inside to take the medical history of her next patient — a lifelong smoker who's starting to show early signs of lung disease.

The irony of the situation is not lost on hospital administrators, who realize the double standard that is set when patients heading into the building see health-care professionals outside smoking — the same doctors and nurses who are encouraging them to quit smoking.

That's why they're taking the Stock Island facility and the dePoo Building on Kennedy Drive smoke-free.

"We need to set the example for health care in the community," said Randy Detrick, marketing manger for Lower Keys Medical Center. "You can't have nurses and doctors outside smoking and then telling [patients] not to."

As of Nov. 15, which coincides with the American Cancer Society's annual Great American Smokeout, all hospital employees and patients will be prohibited from using tobacco products, including cigars, pipes and smokeless tobacco, while on the property of any Lower Keys Medical Center facility.

"No matter how many signs we put up, people still puff away right outside the front door," Detrick said. "Everybody's getting more vocal about secondhand smoke."

For the hospital's roughly 500 employees, that means no designated smoking areas, and no sneaking out to their cars or the sidewalk for a cigarette, Detrick said. Employees must clock out and leave the property if they want to smoke.

The policy also states that smokers are required to minimize the odor that lingers in their clothes and hair from using tobacco off-campus.

Igniting a trend

Lower Keys Medical Center is one of hundreds of hospitals nationwide that have gone smoke-free, with more facilities jumping on the bandwagon each day.

Detrick said there's been a large push in the industry, with agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Florida Hospital Association weighing in as well.

"It started in some of the large hospitals in California, and worked its way across the country," Detrick said.

One of the most notable recent hospital smoking bans was imposed July 20 at Duke University Health System, which includes more than a dozen hospitals and clinics in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. The area, called the Research Triangle, is widely known as a leading area of the country for medical centers and technology.

The hospitals combined have about 40,000 employees and 3 million annual patient visits, according to published reports.

Lower Keys Medical Center also is taking a cue from the newly opened Homestead Hospital in South Florida. The $135 million facility opened in May with a tobacco-free policy. Detrick said the transition there was easier for staff and patients because it was a brand-new building.

Hospitals aren't the only workplaces that have yielded to health concerns in recent years.

States including Florida, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah and Washington all have laws that designate smoke-free indoor workplaces, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation.

The American Lung Association Web site says all 50 states and the District of Columbia have smoke-free air provisions restricting smoking in certain places, such as restaurants and/or bars. These laws range from simple, limited restrictions, such as designated areas in government buildings, to laws that prohibit smoking in virtually all public places and workplaces.

Detrick said some hospitals, such as the Cleveland Clinic, are going so far as to limit their hiring to nonsmokers.

"They are no longer hiring employees that smoke or have nicotine in their system," Detrick said, adding that's not something Lower Keys Medical Center is considering.

Snuffing out addiction

Detrick said so far feedback about the new policy has been overwhelmingly positive, with only a handful of employees complaining or vowing to find new jobs.

"A lot of them are choosing to stop smoking already before we even begin the cessation program," Detrick said, explaining that all hospital employees will be able to participate in smoking cessation programs that include counseling, motivational meetings, education and access to smoking cessation products such as the patch and Nicorette gum.

The program will be sponsored by the Florida Keys Area Health Education Center, a local nonprofit whose mission is to promote health and wellness through community education, service-learning programs, health screenings and professional development of health-care providers.

"The tobacco-free policy is giving them a motivation and a reason to quit," said Michael Cunningham, CEO of the center. "This is the push. This is what they kind of needed."

The center also is bringing in $600,000 to create smoking cessation programs and training for health professionals throughout Monroe County.

It's part of the $10 million the state Legislature awarded the center's network. The money comes from the 1998 multistate tobacco settlement that divvied up $250 billion over 25 years to repay states for health-program costs allegedly attributable to smoking.

The first phase of the center's initiative will involve smoking cessation programs and cessation training for health professionals, Cunningham said. Certified tobacco treatment specialists will take courses that range from the history of tobacco and the biology of the brain, addiction and tobacco dependency to medical complications caused by tobacco and nicotine replacement therapy.

Once the staff is trained, the center can roll out its countywide smoking cessation and education programs, starting with two clinics at the annual Health and Wellness Event in October.

As with hospital employees, the countywide smoking programs would involve one-on-one counseling, group sessions, pharmacy assistance for people without insurance, and information on nicotine replacement products, new medications and alternative therapies such as hypnosis and laser therapy. The center also would deploy smoking prevention programs in schools.

Cunningham said these programs are guaranteed for at least two years. At that time, the success of the programs will be evaluated to see if the funding will continue.

http://www.keysnews.com/317942768697686.bsp.htm

[speedysducky]

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/155/11/1490

http://www.ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/con...ract/50/10/1346

This, of course, ignores the suggestion (i.e. not really a strong association yet, but it really hasn't been examined in detail either) that nicotine is helpful for people suffering from schizophrenia (and possibly bipolar disorder since it also affects sensory gating).

This makes sense but there are other ways to administer nicotine. Why put them and the people at risk for cancer when you can put a simple patch on the skin and get the same effects with less possible side effects?