University is looking to snuff out tobacco
Rick Roche, the vice president of human resources, said: “Obviously for us, we want to do it in the most thoughtful way for patients and visitors and employees. We don’t want to hit them over the head with it. But under the University ban, employees would be asked not to go to adjacent properties to smoke. What we’re asking is that we be good neighbors and that our employees don’t walk across the street to somebody else’s property and smoke on their property.”
Since April 2007, Aiken Regional Medical Centers and all of its properties have been “tobacco-free inside and out”, said Melissa Summer, the director of marketing and public relations.
Mr. Roche said that University is planning to give its employees a motive to quit – paying co-pays for medications and offering $50 for those who go tobacco-free for six months, $100 for a year.
Nurse manager Phyllis Siverhus gave up smoking two years ago but started back after her mother died about a year later. She said: “I’ve already started taking Chantix. I knew this was coming. It’s one of the reasons I quit two years ago.”
The director of operations for the smoking-cessation clinic, Janie Heath said: “That’s huge. I hope we’ll be able to have a health community that is totally committed to this where all of our hospitals would champion this cause, so that we can all look at how we can reduce illness and improve health and serve as role models for our community, state and country. Maybe we’ll start seeing a citywide movement on this. It would just be absolutely phenomenal and wonderful.”
