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“Our hope is that more hospitals in this region also will adopt tobacco free policies,” Wente said. “We firmly believe that this new policy will significantly and positively impact the future of our region’s health.”
Most St. Louis and Kansas City hospitals also adopted tobacco free campuses at the same time Southeast went smoke-free.
For info on Tobacco Cessation Classes, call Southeast's Wellness Connection at 573-332-1587.
Help for Patients
"We want our patients who use tobacco to have as comfortable a hospital stay as possible," Wente said. "Patients during their stay at Southeast will be able to receive at no charge nicotine replacement products based on physician orders."
Physicians may prescribe one of six FDA approved medications for tobacco cessation. These include four prescription drugs, nicotine gum and the nicotine patch.
Help for Employees, Physicians, Other Qualified Individuals
Southeast also has established a Nicotine Replacement Products Policy to assist Hospital employees, their spouses, physicians on the Medical Staff at Southeast, volunteers and Auxilians, Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing & Health Sciences students and other individuals officially affiliated with the Hospital in their efforts to quit tobacco use if that is their choice.
Wente said qualified individuals who have enrolled in a tobacco cessation class, offered at no charge by Southeast Missouri Hospital Wellness Services, will be able to obtain at no charge a 30-day supply of one of the FDA approved smoking cessation products up to a three-month maximum at Southeast's Plaza Pharmacy in Cape or Main Street Pharmacy in Jackson.
“I am pleased that Southeast is taking a proactive approach on this national healthcare issue,” said D. Curtis Coonce, M.D., a Cape Girardeau otolaryngologist and past president of the Southeast Missouri Hospital Medical Staff.
Over the past four-plus decades, tobacco cessation and avoidance education efforts have resulted in a nearly 50 percent decrease in smoking rates among U.S. adults and more than a 50 percent decrease in the annual consumption of tobacco.
“Despite these efforts, tobacco use still remains the number one cause of preventable and premature deaths in the U.S.,” added Dr. Coonce. “The toll on longevity, quality of life and health care costs has been substantial. The Surgeon Generals’ reports show that tobacco affects every system and nearly every organ in the body.”
Southeast, along with most other U.S. hospitals, established a smoke-free environment indoors in 1993 in keeping with a standard enacted by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organziations (JCAHO). The JCAHO decision made hospitals the only work sites that have attempted an industry-wide smoking ban. Today, more than 70 percent of indoor workers have a smoke free workplace, according to the Center for Communicable Diseases. |