Safety

Time to rethink smoking policies

Hospital Safety Insider, June 11, 2015

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If your hospital is like many out there, you might think you have a pretty solid smoking policy in place. For one, smoking is unhealthy, and encouraging your visitors and staff to kick the habit sets a good example for everyone. Plus, it’s a fire hazard: Despite the strictest of rules, many patients are still injured or killed every year due to someone sneaking a smoke. But like any rule, no-smoking policies are not always easy to enforce as there will always be someone who tries to skirt the rules.

 

Well, get ready, because it looks you’ll be breaking out the rulebook again to revise your smoking policies. The Joint Commission, in an article published in the February 11 edition of its Joint Commission Online newsletter, issued a recommendation that hospitals review their smoking policies to make sure they apply to electronic cigarettes as well as traditional tobacco cigarettes.

This is an excerpt from an article in Briefings on Hospital Safety. Visit here to log in or subscribe.

 

 



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