Countdown to Smoke-Free Campus at Baptist Health Care

On Nov. 19, Baptist Health Care will extend their smoke-free zones to include the entire campus – indoors and outdoors.  

Coinciding with the Great American Smoke-Out, Baptist Health Care expands its smoking policy in an effort to ensure patients, families, employees and community members are not exposed to the harmful effects of smoking while on any of its campuses.  

Baptist Health Care joins 1,800 hospitals nationwide who have adopted smoke-free campus policies. A recent study by the Joint Commission estimates the majority of U.S. hospital will be smoke-free by the end of 2009. Four Baptist Health Care facilities – Jay Hospital, Baptist Manor, Baptist Behavioral Medicine Hospital and Baptist Home Health Care – have already adopted smoke-free campus policies.  

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cite tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States.  An estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke each year.

Among the reasons for adopting a campus-wide smoke-free policy, smoking and second-hand smoke:

        -Have the potential to slow and/or inhibit treatment.

        -Are known causes of many illnesses.

        -Are inconsistent with a Mission of healing.  

For more information, community resources and smoking cessation information, visit BHCgoessmokefree.org.