Smoke-Free Campus Arrives April 15, 2006

Smoking has been prohibited inside Evergreen Medical Center (EMC) facilities since 1995. Keeping with the hospital’s goal of improving the health status of our community, Evergreen Medical Center will be moving to a smoke-free campus on April 15, 2006. This means there will be no smoking, or use of tobacco products, on any property owned or operated by EMC. This includes the main hospital campus, all surrounding facilities, Evergreen Home Care, EMC Hospice and EMC Health and Wellness. This new policy will apply to all patients, visitors, employees, vendors and clinicians.

To assist their employees, the hospital is providing education classes on smoking cessation. The training program, based on the American Lung Association program and led by qualified EMC staff, will begin February 23. Patients admitted to the hospital will have access to nicotine replacement therapy as prescribed by their physician.

Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States. Each year, according to the Surgeon General, it accounts for an estimated 440,000 premature deaths related to smoking, 38,000 deaths in nonsmokers as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke, and $157.7 billion in health-related economic losses.

“It has been proven that tobacco use reduces the length and quality of one’s life,” states Jim Peace, Administrator of EMC. “We have a responsibility, as a healthcare provider in this community, to protect and improve the health of our citizens. By implementing this new smoke-free policy, it is our hope that we can positively impact the lives of smokers and nonsmokers in this area.”