Columbia Basin Hospital bans tobacco

EPHRATA - The Columbia Basin Hospital is banning tobacco use on the facility's property beginning Tuesday.

As part of a new tobacco policy, no one is allowed to use tobacco products on any hospital property including parking lots, private vehicles in parking lots or vehicles owned by the hospital.

"For state and federal law you haven't been able to smoke in public buildings for quite some time. By going tobacco-free on our campus means that they'll literally have to get off our property to smoke, and it's everybody, employees, patients, families, visitors, in-patient residents, it will apply to everybody," said Donna Knauss, president of the Columbia Basin Hospital Board of Commissioners.

The entire medical staff as well as additional employees worked on updating the hospital's tobacco policy for more than nine months, according to Columbia Basin Hospital Community Relations Coordinator Susan Scheib.

"We figured it would not be something that would happen in a day," says Columbia Basin Hospital Administrator Robert Reeder. "We're excited for this. This is a move a number of other hospitals in the state are going to also. Our vision is to be a health care provider in the community. If people want to come to us to improve their health than we really need to have this."

To help tobacco-using employees quit, the hospital offers to pay for a "first round" of smoking cessation such as nicotine gum or patches, according to Scheib.

"We're trying to put a program in place to help people quit," said Knauss. "If they don't want to quit they'll just have to go off the property, which can be hard but it is do-able."

"We're really trying to make this a positive thing, not a negative," says Knauss. "But I am sure there's going to be some heartburn over it. We will be putting up signs, and it will be really important at the front door, places where people traditionally stop and smoke."

Some of the new procedures outlined in the yet-to-be-adopted include eliminating the sale of tobacco products and prohibiting physicians from writing orders for patients to use tobacco on hospital property.

The draft indicates that if a patient refuses to comply with the tobacco-free policy, they will be reminded of the policy and have all tobacco products removed from their possession. Patients may have their tobacco products returned to them on discharge from the hospital. 

Hospital employees who violate the policy will be documented and termination of employment can occur for repeat violations.

The updated tobacco policy will be presented to the board on Monday and enacted beginning Tuesday morning.