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I'd like to know how they think they are going to be able to enforce this without losing money. You try to tell a man who's wife is in labor or someone whose LO has suffered a heart attack or stroke that they can't go outside to smoke a cigarette, even in their own personal vehicle! What a bunch of idiots.
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Many hospitals are already doing this. Some that I know of for a fact that do not allow smoking on their campus are:
Southwest Alabama Medical Center in Thomasville, AL
Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham, AL
University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital, AL
Bryan W.Whitfield Memorial Hospital in Demopolis, AL
Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, GA
Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, GA
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA
Grady General Hospital in Atlanta, GA

And the Mayo Clinic is also a smoke-free campus.

When choosing a healthcare facility, such as a hospital, is the question "can I smoke near there?" even anywhere near the list of criteria you'd use in making that decision?
I think they have bigger issues than having a smoke free campus. I am a non smoker and it doesn't bother me at all if they have a smoking area as long as I don't have to walk through it to get in or out of the hospital. If an employee at HKH wants to have a smoke, they will have to clock out for every break and get off of the campus. Most of the supervisors hate for employees to clock in and out for every break. Do you think the security guards can actually stop you from smoking in your car and are they going to treat patients, visitors, and employees the same?
No, they aren't going to treat people the same. If you are an employee, you risk losing your job. If you're not, you get offered a lozenge. And I diasgree about not winning this one. You'll see. Mark my words. Wanna bet they'll be allowing visitors AND employees to smoke in their cars by March 1st? I totally support the rights of people to have to be exposed to second hand smoke, but the one poor excuse they had for a smoking shelter doesn't an attempt to fix the problem make. They need at least three self contained shelters with DOORS and an exhaust system. With the money they're going to lose, they could have bought them. And yes, since my docs go to all three Shoals hospitals and I smoke, I'll go elsewhere now. Keller isn't any better or worse than the others.
I would not consider using a doctor who smokes. How can you work in the medical field in this day and time and smoke. It all ways kills me to see any medical professional smoking. I see people in scrubs standing outside medical offices on College Street all the time. I would fire their butts in a second.
As for those who have loved ones suffering a heart attack or stroke and need a cigarette? Maybe they should have thought about that before their loved one spent a lifetime around smoke, first or second hand. I haven't been there in a while but to visit ECM one used to have to walk through the smoking gauntlet that often included patients in hospital gowns with their asses hanging out and leaning on IV poles.
bubbaluck, it's simple. It's legal to smoke. Even docs and other medical professionals have the right to do so. The government wants the bucks from the tobacco sales, but they don't want people to smoke. Guess they want people to buy it and just look at it, eh? I guess you wouldn't want your doctor to eat a candy bar or eat a hamburger, either? Trans fats lead to heart disease.
i heard that "Dallas Texas "is smoke free. i dont smoke but i wonder where a smoker is supposed to go if not outside.i also know that employees that smoke cause employers to lose money by taking out time from their job to smoke.my son worked at a place and he dont smoke. one evening while other workers were on a quick smoke break outside he went to join in on the break, the manager told him to go back to work because he wasn't a smoker!!! of course he didn't .. thats my boy.
Employers also lose a TON of money paying for smokers to go the Dr. with sinus infections, emphysema, bronchitis, not to mention paying all the cancer claims. My uncle died of lung cancer, it wasn't pretty to watch. A cousin of mine never smoked a day in her life, but she has lung cancer.....apparently her husband smoked enough for both of them. Sorry, I guess I'm pretty opininated about the issue of smoking...I work in prevention and spend my days speaking about the dangers of drugs, including tobacco...
I'm a non-smoker and am always glad to have clean air. However, I don't think they will be able to stop folks from smoking in their cars. Schools are smoke-free campuses but parents smoke in their cars and nothing is done. I don't think they'll get too far with banning it from smoking in their own cars. I don't think there's a problem with them if they are in their own cars with the windows rolled up. That's going a bit too far...IMO
If we are trying to keep the doctors healthy....then they need to bring a lunch to the hospital. The hospital food is not healthy at all unless you are on a strict diet from your doctor and your in one of the beds. As for someone getting lung cancer from a smoker, it is possible to get lung cancer and it not be from smoking or second hand smoke.
A friend of mine just told me that he was at HKH on the 30th and was told by a security guard that they have been told to write $10.00 tickets to all smokers. They can only write one ticket to the same person during the course of a day. I don't know how they intend to enforce giving someone a ticket and collecting the money.
Let me reply to this in a kindly matter. I smoke some not that much, no I have no right to smoke around others whom it would cause them any health problems. But if I want to smoke in my car with the windows rolled up it is nobody's business but my own and certainly not the hospital's. If I recall HKH is a county owned hosptal and do accept federal grants. I see the ACLC jumping all over this, much least maybe the EEOC for employees rights. Now, tell me are they going to tell someone who uses smokeless tobacco that it is alright for them to use it and not allow smokers to smoke inside their vehicles, if not could we see a possible discriminaion law suit because of such actions. And just how much taxes are states getting form tobacco sales, click onto any state http://www.rjrt.com/legal/taxPaymentsByState.asp
Right on Bluesman. I never have had much of a chance to go to Keller, but I would like to see them say something to me about smoking in my own vehicle. As for UAB Being Smoke free...not really. People smoke outside all the time, plus they have a place on a certain balcony to smoke complete with benches and ashtrays. At least they did a few months ago.
quote:
Originally posted by SaltyDog:
I guess you wouldn't want your doctor to eat a candy bar or eat a hamburger, either? Trans fats lead to heart disease.


Salty, I have no information that trans fat comsumed by others in the form of hamburgers, candy bars or any thing else, does any harm to others, second hand. I have never had to walk through a wall of transfat to get into a building. I have never been sickened by the smell of transfat wafting through a restaurant from another table in the trans fat section, even at La Hacienda, which has a terrible smoking problem.
Didn`t Bloomberg of New York ban trans fat in that city?
quote:
Originally posted by bubbaluck:
quote:
Originally posted by SaltyDog:
I guess you wouldn't want your doctor to eat a candy bar or eat a hamburger, either? Trans fats lead to heart disease.


Salty, I have no information that trans fat comsumed by others in the form of hamburgers, candy bars or any thing else, does any harm to others, second hand. I have never had to walk through a wall of transfat to get into a building. I have never been sickened by the smell of transfat wafting through a restaurant from another table in the trans fat section, even at La Hacienda, which has a terrible smoking problem.
Originally posted by bubbaluck:

Salty, I have no information that trans fat comsumed by others in the form of hamburgers, candy bars or any thing else, does any harm to others, second hand. I have never had to walk through a wall of transfat to get into a building. I have never been sickened by the smell of transfat wafting through a restaurant from another table in the trans fat section, even at La Hacienda, which has a terrible smoking problem.


bubbaluck, as many times as I have been to HKH, as a patient or a visitor, the only people i ever saw smoking were sitting in the shelter where they were supposed to be. I never saw anyone standing in front of the building smoking. Off to the side, maybe. They put the darned thing right next to the ER/Outpatient doors. If you had to walk thru a cloud of msoke, it's not the smokers fault. They were doing what they were supposed to do. Maybe the powers that be should have moved the smoking area.
I am a smoker but also an American citizen. If I chose to smoke that is my decision. If I want to take the chance of getting lung cancer, again my decision. The new smoking policy Keller adopted can't stop someone from smoking while visiting the hospital, only on their property. Remember all smokers there is like a 6 foot area around all entrances to the hospital that is owned by the state that CAN be smoked on. On all entrance to the hospital there are signs up that states "no smoking beyond this point", so no problem I will just stand in front of that sign, and SMOKE, what can they do then? NOTHING... So now everyone will really have to go through the smoke to get onto Keller property. This hospital has just made this a war, a war in which they will not win..
quote:
Originally posted by 1GIRLand1BOY:
I am a smoker but also an American citizen. If I chose to smoke that is my decision. If I want to take the chance of getting lung cancer, again my decision. The new smoking policy Keller adopted can't stop someone from smoking while visiting the hospital, only on their property. Remember all smokers there is like a 6 foot area around all entrances to the hospital that is owned by the state that CAN be smoked on. On all entrance to the hospital there are signs up that states "no smoking beyond this point", so no problem I will just stand in front of that sign, and SMOKE, what can they do then? NOTHING... So now everyone will really have to go through the smoke to get onto Keller property. This hospital has just made this a war, a war in which they will not win..


well said!
What HKH had for smokers did not bother me in the least. I could SEE the people under that canopy by those HUGE fans, but I never smelled smoke.

What they have going for their Employees is the same, no one KNOWS or can TELL. I was told by a friend of mine that a bottle of fabreeze and some tic-tacs and they were good to go back to work.

I don't think HKH wanted to wage a war, per se, I think they THOUGHT that people wouldn't mind. But I have already heard so many people I work with and a lot that I know that are somewhere else say that their NOW hospital of choice is ECM.

Wow, making people CHOOSE hospitals, now THAT is a first, even for me!!!
I am a smoker. If a restaurant goes smoke-free, I don't go there anymore. My sister is a non-smoker and she kills me. I had a cigarette in my mouth, it wasn't even lit, and she starts hacking and coughing. Ha. Cars emit more pollution than my camel wide. There are perservatives in my food, waves coming from my microwave, and cell phones cause cancer. You can be the perfect human specimen and still drop dead from a heart attack. I truly believe everyone that is drinking splenda and nutrasweet now, will sprout two heads or have deformed children. The thing is, in America, we give you the right to kill yourself if you want to. The fact that the hospital is smoke-free has nothing to do with their concern for the patients and visitors, it's because they could get cheaper insurance if they went smoke-free. They didn't do it for you or me; they did it for themselves. I would rather face a pit-bull in the dark than a person who hasn't had a cigarette in 8 hours and they have 4 more hours to go. You can expect that they will be short handed from now on, service will be even slower, and moods will not be good. But while your baby is waiting six hours to get her head stitched up while she's bleeding, you can sit there assured that she won't die of second hand smoke.
quote:
Originally posted by bubbaluck:
I would not consider using a doctor who smokes. How can you work in the medical field in this day and time and smoke. It all ways kills me to see any medical professional smoking. I see people in scrubs standing outside medical offices on College Street all the time. I would fire their butts in a second.
As for those who have loved ones suffering a heart attack or stroke and need a cigarette? Maybe they should have thought about that before their loved one spent a lifetime around smoke, first or second hand. I haven't been there in a while but to visit ECM one used to have to walk through the smoking gauntlet that often included patients in hospital gowns with their asses hanging out and leaning on IV poles.


I use to love seeing the patients standing out in the smoking area at ECM hooked to their IV's, puffing away. I always thought they were probably patients of Dr. Morris or Dr. Holden, in the hospital for their emphysema, bronchitis, or lung cancer.

ECM now has a room for the smokers that has a special ventilation system. But for some reason, the smokers still prefer to go outside, though there aren't really any areas closer than the parking lot where smoking is allowed.
quote:
Originally posted by zippadeedoodah:
For those of you who relish smoking in your cars...in California it is now illegal to smoke in your car if there are children inside. Don't expect that it will be very long before those same forces move to incorporate such a law all over the country.


I wish they had had that law when I was a kid. Travelling with my chain smoking parents was hell.
quote:
Originally posted by CrustyMac:
quote:
Originally posted by bubbaluck:
I would not consider using a doctor who smokes. How can you work in the medical field in this day and time and smoke. It all ways kills me to see any medical professional smoking. I see people in scrubs standing outside medical offices on College Street all the time. I would fire their butts in a second.
As for those who have loved ones suffering a heart attack or stroke and need a cigarette? Maybe they should have thought about that before their loved one spent a lifetime around smoke, first or second hand. I haven't been there in a while but to visit ECM one used to have to walk through the smoking gauntlet that often included patients in hospital gowns with their asses hanging out and leaning on IV poles.


I use to love seeing the patients standing out in the smoking area at ECM hooked to their IV's, puffing away. I always thought they were probably patients of Dr. Morris or Dr. Holden, in the hospital for their emphysema, bronchitis, or lung cancer.

ECM now has a room for the smokers that has a special ventilation system. But for some reason, the smokers still prefer to go outside, though there aren't really any areas closer than the parking lot where smoking is allowed.



Crusty, I walked through a group of smokers at ECM a couple of months ago, knowing full well they had a room that they were supposed to be in. It really irritated me because I could "feel" my hair and clothes soaking up all that smell.

I then went inside to the Volunteer desk and complained about it. Took about 2 minutes for the Guard to come over to them and point to the place for them to go.

You have the right to complain if it is outside over there.

But Keller is very different, their area was away from the entrance, and there were HUGE fans right beside it, and never one time have I ever been bothered by walking into Keller seeing the smokers sitting on their benches. Because it was THEIR lungs. And I didn't smell a thing!!
quote:
Originally posted by Kindred:


But Keller is very different, their area was away from the entrance, and there were HUGE fans right beside it, and never one time have I ever been bothered by walking into Keller seeing the smokers sitting on their benches. Because it was THEIR lungs. And I didn't smell a thing!![/color][/b]


I've been in Helen Keller's parking lot twice in the last two years, and since I don't smoke either, I'll take your word for it. If they already had a good solution, I'm surprised that they felt the need to take the extra step.
I have been to HKH several times in the past month and each time ask a volunteer to please pass it on to whomever needs to know that the cigarette butts need to be picked up from the mulch on either side of the ER/Outpatient Admitting doors. As of today, they are still there. If they were really that concerned about offending people and wanted to be taken seriously on this ban, they'd have cleaned them out of the mulch on December 31st.
quote:
Originally posted by SaltyDog:
I have been to HKH several times in the past month and each time ask a volunteer to please pass it on to whomever needs to know that the cigarette butts need to be picked up from the mulch on either side of the ER/Outpatient Admitting doors. As of today, they are still there. If they were really that concerned about offending people and wanted to be taken seriously on this ban, they'd have cleaned them out of the mulch on December 31st.


Maybe they can't afford to, and is one of the reasons they decided to ban smoking on their campus. Just a thought.
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