Hospital going smoke-free

Methodist Hospital will prohibit all smoking of any kind anywhere on the campus as of January 1, 2013. Hospital leaders say the new policy reflects the hospital’s mission. “We are eliminating tobacco use on our properties to provide a healthy and safe environment for employees, patients and visitors and to promote positive health behaviors,” said Methodist Hospital CEO and President Dan Ausman. The new policy bans the use of all tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes and smokeless tobacco in and outside of the hospital, including parking lots, hospital vehicles and employees’ personal vehicles parked on the premises. Employees are prohibited from using tobacco products during working hours.

The US Surgeon General in 1964 declared that smoking is hazardous to health. Yet smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death and disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Methodist Hospital views tobacco use as a quality concern. “We know that continued tobacco use can cause problems for patients,” said Chief Medical Officer Bala Chandrasekhar, MD. “Smoking hinders wound healing, increases infection rates in surgeries and is a common cause of poor birth outcomes.” Three-fourths of all tobacco users say they want to quit. But Methodist Hospital recognizes the challenges of breaking the addiction to nicotine and respects an individual’s quitting process. “We are not telling people they must quit smoking,” Dr. Chandrasekhar said. “We are saying they cannot smoke at our hospital. While they are a patient or visitor at this hospital, we can suggest ways to ease nicotine withdrawal symptoms. And if they are ready to quit, we have trained professionals and community partners who can help.”

Methodist Hospital has asked its employees to help inform visitors and patients about the new policy, Ausman said. “This will not be easy, but it‘s central to our continuing efforts to make an excellent place to work and to receive health care,” he said. In implementing the new tobacco ban, the hospital plans to offer symptom relief or tobacco-cessation treatment to interested staff, visitors and patients. There are several helpful resources for quitting smoking. Among them: www.LAQuits.com and 1-800-NO-BUTTS (1-800-662-8887 – English). For Cantonese or Mandarin: 1-800-838-8917; Spanish, 1-800-45-NO-FUME (1-800-456-6386) and TDD/TTY Hearing Impaired: 1-800-933-4TDD (1-800-844-2439). The Methodist Hospital Cancer Resource Center, 626-574-3515, also has information on quitting.

— By Scott Hettrick