People Ban: DE State long-term care hospitals

Smokers balk at new ban for state long-term care hospitals

July 17, 2007
By REBEKAH ALLEN, The News Journal

Beginning in mid-November, state hospitals providing long-term care will ban smoking anywhere on the property in an attempt to reduce second-hand smoke and promote healthy lifestyles, Delaware Health and Social Services officials said.

The ban will go into effect on Nov. 15, the same day as the Great American Smokeout – a day designated by the American Cancer Society for smokers to quit. It will affect all new patients, employees, visitors, medical staff, contractors and vendors.

Existing patients in the nursing homes and other state-operated facilities will be allowed to continue to smoke in designated areas. The agency still is working on penalties for violators.

The five hospital campuses included in the ban are the Herman Holloway Sr. complex near New Castle that includes the Delaware Psychiatric Center; the Stockley Center for the developmentally disabled in Georgetown; and the state’s three nursing homes: Governor Bacon Health Center in Delaware City, Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill in Smyrna and Emily P. Bissell Hospital in Wilmington.

DHSS currently employs more than 5,000 people with the majority working on one of the five affected campuses, spokesperson Jay Lynch said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five Americans is a smoker.

Currently, employees and visitors are permitted to smoke in designated outdoor areas, but once the ban goes into affect there will be no smoking allowed anywhere on hospital property – including parking lots.

“As the guardian of Delaware’s public health it is our turn to take the lead in the movement to prohibit smoking in the workplace,” DHSS Secretary Vince Meconi said in a news release. “As we see it, condoning tobacco use anywhere on our hospital properties sends the wrong message about a deadly product.”

The news did not go over that well among smokers at the Holloway campus on Tuesday. They are upset about the ban and skeptical of its effectiveness.

A custodian for nearly six years, Daniel Magazino said he was ardently opposed to the ban.

“I hate it,” he said. “We’re in our designated outdoor areas. We’re out in the open. It’s our freedom to smoke. Talk’s been going on already and a lot of people are upset about it.”

Magazino also said he doesn’t think people are going to stop taking smoking breaks. Instead, they will walk off of the hospital property to smoke, leaving patients and duties unattended for an extended time.

Becky Lurty, an accounting employee, said she feels pressured to quit smoking.

“We know we need to stop, but being pushed to stop is something different,” Lurty said. “I thought we were allowed to smoke outside because the second-hand smoke wouldn’t hurt anyone. But I guess not.”

Co-worker Dan Schmitt said he hasn’t been fazed by the announcement yet.

“We had to know it was coming,” Schmitt said. “It won’t make a difference until we know what consequences there are.”

Lynch said a policy for enforcement has not yet been outlined.

Some patients will be exempt from the ban.

Lynch said any patient in long-term care who already smokes will be “grandfathered in.” But patients coming in after Nov. 15 will not be allowed to smoke on the campuses.

“I’m sure some are going to think that that’s not fair,” Lynch added.

Lynch said staff will be responsible for keeping up with which patients have been with the hospital since before the ban.

“No one’s going to be wearing a wristband saying ‘new’ or ‘old,’” Lynch said. “But the staff will know.”

He said there will only be one place for patients to smoke so “if they decide to violate the policy, at least they’ll be in a designated area.”

Starting in January, short-term care facilities like the Delaware Psychiatric Center will also ban patients from smoking.

The state’s anti-smoking push is mirrored by a national trend to eliminate smoking near hospitals, and follows the state’s adoption several years ago of a ban on indoor smoking in public places, including bars, restaurants and casinos.

About 75 percent of hospitals nationwide prohibit smoking on their grounds, according to the American Hospital Association. Christiana Care Health System, Beebe Medical Center, Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children, and St. Francis Hospital already have passed similar bans.

DHSS is easing the transition for smokers by making nicotine replacement products, including gum and lozenges, available at no cost through Nov. 15.

Workers like Nenad Trulja, who has already ordered a nicotine patch, are taking advantage of the encouragement to try to quit smoking.

“I’ve been smoking for eight years and I’ve been trying to quit on my own, but it’s not working,” Trulja said. “I’m tired of smoking.”
Contact Rebekah Allen at 324-2866 or rallen@delawareonline.com.