AREA HOSPITALS Tighter rules beat smokers to the draw

Smoking is banned at all HMHP property, including the parking lots.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- If you find yourself at any hospital in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, don't plan to light up a cigarette, pipe or cigar just anywhere.
Policies enacted over about 10 years have put increasingly greater restrictions on places where the practice is still permitted.
It's no longer enough to ban smoking inside the facilities. Some have banned it outside -- and one prohibits employees from smoking even on their own time.
Most recently, Humility of Mary Health Partners capped a nearly yearlong pro-health effort aimed at employees. HMHP banned smoking anywhere on company property at any of its many facilities effective Nov. 17.
That day also marked the dedication of an employee fitness gym and outdoor public fitness trail at St. Elizabeth Health Center's Youngstown campus. Signs at the facilities remind employees, patients and visitors of the policy.
"It's seems to be going very well," said Connie Moorhouse, public relations specialist for HMHP. She thinks the response has been positive and can testify that smoking is down at St. Elizabeth's. The only smoking she sees now is on sidewalks, off hospital property, she said.
"There's nobody at the entrance smoking now," she said, adding that employees violating the policy are subject to disciplinary action and visitors are advised by security personnel of the new rules.
All hospitals in the area offer smoking-cessation programs to help patients and employees kick the habit.
Warren's St. Joe's
Bill Young, chief operating officer at the St. Joseph Health Center campus in Warren, said the HMHP smoke-free initiative has been well received. "We have had no enforcement issues. Everyone is respectful of each other and our new smoke-free environment," he said.
He added that the initiative has encouraged many employees to quit smoking.
Moorhouse noted that two HMHP residential facilities -- Humility House in Austintown and The Assumption Village in North Lima -- are exempt from the policy because they are residences.
HMHP also operates a Boardman campus of St. Elizabeth's, HM Home Health Services and Pharmacy in Girard and Hospice of the Valley in Boardman.
Forum Health
Meanwhile, Forum Health's policy since 1993 is that smoking is allowed outside all of its facilities -- but only in designated areas. Smoking is not allowed at entrances or exits, where nonsmokers or patients would be subject to the smoke, said John Gonda, director of marketing and public relations.
Forum Health operates Northside Medical Center and Tod Children's Hospital in Youngstown; Trumbull Memorial Hospital, Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital and Elm Road Medical Park in Warren; and Austintown Medical Park, among other facilities.
Salem Community
One area hospital, Salem Community, is taking the smoke-free philosophy one step further. It prohibits the use of all tobacco products at its facility and doesn't hire people who use those products.
The hospital adopted the policy June 1, 1996. Employees hired before that year are not subject to the rule, but are prohibited from using such products on hospital grounds, said Michele Hoffmeister, the hospital's director of public relations.
The hospital allows visitors, grandfathered employees and physicians to smoke outside the building in designated areas, she said.
"As a health care provider, we have a responsibility to promote practices that enhance personal health and provide a smoke-free environment for all who visit our facility," she said.
In Pennsylvania
At Jameson Health System in New Castle, Pa., a one-year-old policy prohibits smoking anywhere except in a sixth-floor outdoor area of the North Campus in New Castle, said Linda Cody-Jaskolka, director of public relations.
Jameson allows visitors and patients to smoke outside but away from entrances and exits at its North Campus, and prohibits smoking anywhere but outside away from entrances and exits at its South Campus in New Castle.
Sharon Regional Health System has had a policy for many years making its facilities smoke-free on the inside but allowing smoking outside, said Ed Newmeyer, director of marketing and community relations. The health system has facilities in Hermitage and Mercer, Pa., and Brookfield.
runyan@vindy.com