I wouldn't care if they would target every other bad health habit and ban those people too. It's stupid and, imo, discriminatory. I wonder how many people they allow in the hospital carrying guns?

Children's of Alabama hospital has quit hiring tobacco users

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- UAB made waves in November when it publicly announced that starting July 1 it would no longer hire tobacco users to work in its large medical network, including UAB Hospital.

But Children's of Alabama hospital has beaten them to the punch.

Children's, which employs 4,200 and hires about 800 people a year, stopped hiring tobacco users beginning Jan. 1.

Similar to the policy proposed by UAB, Children's will rescind its job offer to any applicant who screens positive for nicotine. That means smokers, snuff dippers, tobacco chewers and, at least under Children's policy, even nicotine gum chewers.

UAB is still examining the part of the policy on how to handle those using nicotine gum or other nicotine replacement cessation therapies.

Also like UAB's proposed policy, Children's tobacco-free hiring policy does not apply to existing employees, but existing employees who smoke are offered and encouraged to try the hospital's smoking cessation programs.

"Our primary mission as a pediatric health care employer is to consider the healthy behaviors we are promoting," said Doug Dean, chief of human resources at Children's. "We just think it makes a great deal of sense and is consistent with that mission."

With the policy only in effect a few weeks, Dean said he had no information on whether any urinalysis drug screenings have come back positive for nicotine and thus resulted in the withdrawal of a job offer.

Over time, the smoke-free hiring policy will have benefits in reduced health claims costs, reduced absenteeism and fewer excessive breaks, Dean said.

It's an open secret in health-care circles that other hospital systems in the Birmingham area are considering their own tobacco-free hiring policies, but few were admitting to anything beyond the discussion stage when contacted by Al.com/The Birmingham News this week.

"We have looked at the policy and we have not changed our policy to date," said Kate Darden, spokewoman for Baptist Health System, which operates four hospitals in four central Alabama counties. "We have looked at it (a tobacco-free hiring policy) and feel it has merit. We can't speculate about what we are going to do in the immediate future."

Brookwood Medical Center spokeswoman Kelly Taylor said in a statement they have discussed such a policy:

"We have eliminated smoking and tobacco use on our campus and have discussed a tobacco-free hiring policy as a natural progression of this commitment."

Liz Moore with St. Vincent's Alabama, which operates four hospitals, said in a statement "we have not made a change in our hiring practices. We are supportive of efforts to create a healthy workplace."

Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham was the only hospital in the Birmingham area contacted by AL.com that appeared to have taken a firm stance -- against such a policy.

"After careful consideration and evaluation, Trinity Medical Center has chosen not to make an individual's use, or non-use, of tobacco a condition of employment," hospital spokeswoman Leisha Harris, said in an e-mail. "We certainly encourage our employees not to smoke and make them aware of the risks and dangers inherent with smoking."

The policy is controversial by its nature, offending the libertarian minded and criticized by some for singling out smokers but not others who may make poor health choices.

"If hiring smokers is supporting the habit of smoking, then hiring overweight individuals is supporting physical inactivity and lousy diets," wrote Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health in a blog post last year.

Siegel was criticizing the tobacco-free hiring policy of the renowned Ohio health care organization, Cleveland Clinic, which is one of the pioneers in implementing such a policy.

"Moreover, since the Cleveland Clinic is willing to hire people who do not wear seat belts, who speed on the roadways, who have unsafe sex, and who use tanning salons, the Cleveland Clinic is therefore a supporter of reckless driving, promiscuity, and skin cancer" Siegel wrote.

But Dr. Paul Terpeluk, who helped institute the policy at the Cleveland Clinic in 2007, told AL.com in an interview late last year, that there is legal precedent for not hiring smokers -- not so with the overweight.

Terpeluk said that after some initial push-back on "the Big Brother part of this," the policy has become an accepted part of the "wellness culture," which includes not serving sodas or other sugared products in their vending machines at the clinic.

At Children's the policy is brand new, but news of it went over well with most employees, Dean said.

"One hundred percent of the feedback I've gotten has been positive from staff who do not use tobacco ... They've said it's about time.

"Realistically when you have as large a workplace as we do, certain employees take a different view, which I respect," he said.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/01/chi ... rt_m-rpt-2

Be interesting if Soros or Buffett started a "We don't hire Republicans" policy.

They have been drug testing employees for years. So they are adding in tobacco. Tobacco is legal so I have to be against discrimination against smokers, but on the other hand I wish people would STOP smoking.

Control freaks need victims.
This time it's smokers.
Next week it'll be people with beards or something.
150 years ago it was black slaves.

Hospitals have weird codes, oskar. I think you are allowed to have beards, but you cannot have artificial nails. You have to cover your shoulders and none of your foot or leg can be exposed.

You obviously cannot smoke anywhere inside the building and part of it (aside from the insurance costs and setting a good example) is they don't want to lose the 15 minutes it takes the smoker to go outside and smoke several times on a 12 hour shift.

So there are no breaks at all in that 12 hour shift?
Sounds more like a sweat shop than a hospital.

They legally get two 15 minute breaks and a half hour for lunch.

Nursing is not for sissies.

Your labour laws need upgrading.

I am sure my nurse friend Molly takes more than two smoke breaks per day. She is a wonderful woman and caring nurse but also a cigarette addict. I only know one nurse of the 400 or so employed by the hospital who takes extra breaks so I am fairly sure chaos is right about one of many.

Hospitals are a different world. Most nurses are too busy to take their breaks. I am focusing on nurses as there are 400 nurses at my hospital and maybe 14 hospitalists (doctors who are employed by the hospital). The other doctors have hospital privileges and are not employed directly by the hospital.

There are many other categories of employee also; most working 5 8-hour shifts.

I agree with chao's last post in almost all ways.

My one concern in a hospital would be nurses and health care workers coming back from breaks lingering with second hand smoke, in their hair and clothing, and then working in close proximity with patients with breathing problems or sensitivities.

Maybe they could change their shirts and wear a plastic cap while taking a smoke break? Supplied by themselves of course. It's not the hospital's job to enable their habits.

They wear hospital gowns in the patient's rooms to prevent transfer of germs in either direction.

I smoke regularly.
I don't smoke where it is illegal or where it is unwanted.
I've never lost a minutes work for a "smoke break".

Lots of FAA people do. My old world was at the FAA Technical Center where people were salaried engineering support and no breaks etc. They weren't allowed to smoke in the building and there is a smoking area outside. There was a tunnel of smoke leading into the building.

People waste time during the day in all ways, but my friend Linda was told she took too many smoke breaks. She was reprimanded and eventually let go.

That was her choice.

This is not a "control freak situation". Smoking is a health issue.

Having a beard is not.

coming back from breaks lingering with second hand smoke, in their hair and clothing, and then working in close proximity with patients with breathing problems or sensitivities.

If they're smoking outdoors, that's going to be minimal anyway.

But I'm reminded of the lady who worked in the cubicle next to mine once upon a time who had such horrible body odor I'd gag all day long. It sort of became a running joke in the office, we all had those little tree air fresheners hanging in our cubicles. We'd sneak into her cubicle and spray her chair with air freshener, too. She was a really sweet person and wonderful worker, but my gosh the STINK. Like a rotting corpse with a yeast infection who ate nothing but garlic.

There was a fed at the FAA TC who had yellow sweat stains in the armholes of all of his white short-sleeved shirts. Now feds are untouchable for the most part. No one ever wanted to work with him.

This guy practically lived in his cubicle. I doubt if he ever had an actual assignment. He worked well into his seventies.

Smoking is a health issue.

So is being born.

A few quick things:

I gag almost daily from the perfumes/colognes that people wear. Either walking by (while we are having a smoke outside, LOL), when someone comes to the office or working out in the gym where our office is located. Sweaty cologne. There have been many times we've had to open the window in the middle of winter just to get the stench out.

I also get the honor of having to smell those GOD AWFUL dryer sheets, since the vents are all around our balcony. There is one in particular that literally takes my breath away.

What about doctors who smoke? Some do, you know. Will they be banned from the hospitals? What about visitors to the hospital? Will they be subjected to a blood test or sniff test before being allowed to enter? What about visitors who come into the hospital drenched in perfumes that some may be allergic to?

Just some things to think about. Smoking is just the current whipping boy and when it affects someone's ability to have and/or retain a job, it pisses me off.

LOL! I had a supervisor that really reeked. I don't think she bathed daily and sometimes she would wear hubby's pants to work. The department got together (all 4 of us lol) and decided to leave some deodorant on her desk. Guess who's idea that was?

That sort of worked, but I was elected to talk to the department manager about this. After that, things really improved.

I don't think they should ban smokers from working in a hospital, but I do NOT think there should be any smoking in the environs of a hospital.

Visitors, patients, doctors, and nurses can all smoke once they are OUT of the hospital.

I don't know if we are allowed to wear perfume. That may be banned like fake nails. No dryer sheets used. LOL!!!!

In a hospital setting, a beard is often considered a "health issue" ~ so is some exposed skin ~ in some cases, street clothes and/or shoes can be a "health issue" ~ like so many other things, there is no single hard-and-fast rule ~

Sooz

Looks like I'm really screwed.