NEWS
Hospital Smoking Ban
Kristina Hamilton
PANAMA CITY-It's been 269 days since Ken Eads touched his last cigarette. With all the money saved, Eads says he was able to buy a swimming pool for his family.
Eads works at Gulf Coast Medical Center. When he found out the hospital was going smoke-free he was thrilled.
"For someone to come here with an issue related to tobacco use and to see our employees puffing away on cigarettes sends the wrong message that we're not committed to the issue and I support that," says Eads.
Bay County Hospital and Health South Rehab Hospital are also banning all tobacco use on-campus beginning Thursday, to coincide with the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout Day.
This is just one of the many reminders that will be placed through out all three campuses reminding people that the days of smoking on campus are no more.
Health-South CEO Tony Bennett is the one who rallied the three hospitals together. He says it's been a long time coming.
"Throughout the state and country hospitals have been moving to smoke free campuses and this part of the country has been slow," says Bennett.
At first, Bay Medical Center Employee Patricia Shaver felt like her rights were being violated. Now she's looking at the ban as an opportunity.
"Not smoking can only be a positive thing my daughter just died of lung cancer and it wasn't from smoking, but it makes you wake up," says Shaver.
For those smokers who wind-up as patients at any of the three hospitals, administrators offering nicotine patches during their stays.
Bay Medical has been offering smoking cessation classes since October and both Bay Medical and Gulf Coast are selling nicotine candies in their gift stores.
Administrators say they've learned a lot from the hospitals that have already made this move.
"We've had a lot of good resources from other hospitals around the country and one of their main pieces of encouragement for all hospitals and physician offices is be kind and considerate, but remind people of what the policy is and stay with it, says Rod Whiting with Gulf Coast Hospital.
There are already more than 500 U.S. Hospitals, including at least 50 in Florida, that have banned smoking.
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