By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

As Melissa Howell, of Joplin, walks through the parking lot at St. John’s Regional Medical Center and prepares to light a cigarette, she wonders if the public is ready for its hospitals to go tobacco-free.

Local hospital administrators in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma are asking the same question as the Sept. 1 deadline approaches for many hospital campuses to prohibit all forms of tobacco use. Internal tobacco-free campaigns have helped curb negative comments from staff members and patients, but hospital visitors who are unaware may be in for a shock during their first visit after the change.

“It could be a PR nightmare,” said Debbie Totty, spokeswoman for Integris Grove General Hospital in Grove, Okla.

“This is regulation, not legislation,” said Carla Farmer, spokeswoman for Fort Scott Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott, Kan. “Can we encourage it? Yes. Can we enforce it? No.”

Administrators and public-relations departments are hoping that education before the deadline and a mutual sense of respect between the local hospitals and the communities they serve will form the basis for the regulation’s success.

“The nice thing about it being a regulation is it gives us the flexibility to write our own policy,” said Freeman Health System spokeswoman Jamie Hirshey said. “We want to be tactful and considerate, and very respectful.”

While Melissa Howell and her mother, Linda Howell, disagree about whether prohibiting tobacco use in hospital parking lots is a good thing, they agree that regardless of the hospitals’ work before the deadline, some people are going to be upset about the policy change.

“There’s going to be a lot of angry people,” Melissa Howell said. “When people are at the hospital, they’re stressed. And when I’m stressed, I know the first words out of my mouth are, ‘I need a cigarette.’”

Linda Howell said she thinks the change will upset many people, and with good reason. In a society in which tobacco use, and specifically smoking, is becoming increasingly less socially acceptable, smokers can be defensive when they are approached about their habit.

“People who are overweight know that the food they eat isn’t good for them, but you don’t tell them they can’t eat in a hospital,” Linda Howell said.

“I try to be respectful of those who don’t want me to smoke around them, but I expect the same respect from others to make my own decision to smoke,” Melissa Howell said.

Hospital representatives insist that the health-care industry isn’t trying to force anyone to quit or to regulate the after-work activities of staff members or visitors.

“This is not about forcing anyone to do anything,” said Robert Poole, with Mount Carmel Regional Medical Center in Pittsburg, Kan. “We’re not trying to single them out or tell them they can’t smoke.”

The Howells don’t believe that, and they agree that one of the new policy’s ultimate goals is to motivate people to quit smoking for good.

One of the greatest concerns of hospital staffs is dealing with grieving visitors and family members while trying to enforce the tobacco-free regulation and stay in compliance with the Kansas Hospital Association and Missouri Hospital Association.

“We’re asking our staff to use their heads,” said Totty, at Grove. “If someone loses a spouse and goes outside to light up, let them be. You have to make a judgment call.”

Most of the hospitals have policies in place for dealing with visitors who refuse to comply with the policy, but many of the hospitals say there will be a degree of leniency for visitors, and they don’t envision having anyone thrown off the premises for smoking.

“The reality of it is that most likely, the visitors to the hospital will be there for not a very good reason,” said Poole, at Pittsburg. “We have no intention of policing parking lots.”

“We’re going to say ‘no’ to tobacco on our campus, but we’re not going to harass people in their own private cars,” said Hirshey, with Freeman.

Many of the hospitals will have nicotine-replacement products such as patches, lozenges and gum available to buy in their gift shops, and will provide literature on the new regulation and policies. Some of the hospitals are offering free or reduced-price smoking-cessation courses to visitors, patients and staff members.

Most of the hospitals say they haven’t had much response, positive or negative, to the new policy, but they are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

“We really haven’t had a negative feedback, and we haven’t gotten a lot of phone calls about it,” said Kate Massey, with Freeman public relations. “We anticipate we’ll get more. But I guess no news is good news.”

“We’ve heard from several other hospitals that have already gone tobacco-free, and they said there’s always a hesitation, but it really doesn’t turn out to be as big a deal as people expect it to be,” said Bre LaFerla, with St. John’s.







Tobacco-free

Hospitals that are going tobacco-free Sept. 1 are: St. John’s Regional Health Center; Freeman Health System; McCune-Brooks Hospital in Carthage; Integris Baptist Regional Health Center in Miami, Okla.; Integris Grove General Hospital in Grove, Okla.; Mount Carmel Regional Medical Center in Pittsburg, Kan.; and Hospital District No. 1 in Girard, Kan.

Fort Scott (Kan.) Mercy Hospital will go tobacco-free on Jan. 1.