S.B. COUNTY: Hospital smoking ban defeated
10 December 2011
Arrowhead Regional Medical Centre won’t be joining other hospitals in banning smoking on its grounds, at least for now.
On Tuesday, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on a 4-1 vote rejected a proposal to make the entire medical campus in Colton a smoke-free zone.
Medical Centre Director Patrick Peter described proposing the ban on smoking as a way of showing what the hospital stands for.
“I just think it’s a good example for the medical centre to set, to promote a more healthy environment,” he said.
Nationwide more hospitals are adopting smoke-free policies. According to a 2008 report by the Joint Commission, a leading health care facility evaluator, 45 percent of hospitals had put in place such bans.
Locally, Community Hospital of San Bernardino and St. Bernardino Medical Centre approved smoking bans two years ago, and Loma Linda University Medical Centre made its campus tobacco-free in January.
Arrowhead already bans smoking within its facilities but has designated smoking areas in some outdoor places. The ban would have applied to all sidewalk, streets, parking lots, open spaces and cars on the campus.
Board Chairwoman Josie Gonzales was the only supporter of the ban; other supervisors describing it as overly restrictive.
“It seems a little over the top,” said Supervisor Neil Derry, who described himself as a former smoker and questioned where smokers would go.
Supervisor Gary Obit said it was going too far to tell smokers they couldn’t smoke in their own automobiles parked at the hospital.
Peter said the hospital did not plan a heavy-handed approach to enforcement, posting signs and informing visitors of the ban instead. Employees would be offered the opportunity to take part in smoking cessation programs, he said.
Peter said he hopes to find a middle ground and bring back a modified version of the proposal to the board sometime early next year.
Some Link Increased Violence At Napa State Hospital To Smoking Ban
May 3rd, 2011
By KTVU, San Francisco
NAPA, Calif. — As the number of violent attacks escalates at the Napa State Hospital, some have linked it to a ban on cigarettes inside the hospital. Others are highly critical of this idea.
Over the years, violence at Napa State Hospital has been well documented.
The death of hospital employee Donna Gross last October brought to light the rise in violence among patients and employees.
The alleged killer of Donna Gross is patient Jess Massey. A man who, according to records, has a criminal history of armed robbery, sexual assault, and murder. Some patients at Napa State Hospital believe they know why Donna was targeted.
“If you talk about the Jess Massey thing, it’s almost a unanimous consensus. He killed her over tobacco,” said Michael, a hospital patient.
Tobacco has been banned from campus since July 2008. Staff and patients say a single cigarette can sell for about $7. A pack of cigarettes can go for $150.
“There has always been a tobacco trade here for the last 20 something years that I’ve been here. It’s just gotten more expensive because it’s harder to get in,” said registered nurse Sharon Sanguinetti.
Since the campus has been tobacco free, patient on staff assaults have nearly quadrupled. From September 2008 to February 2009 there have been 75 reported assaults. In 2010, there were 287 assaults. The Department of Mental Health said the rise in assaults is not tied to tobacco.
They said the increase I attacks stemmed from them changing the way data was collected and reported in 2009. That change included how aggression was defined and that change could have led to an increase in the number of reports.
