In an effort to create a healthier environment for employees, students and patients, the School of Medicine’s facilities and property will become entirely tobacco-free by April 2007.
The new policy applies to all School of Medicine buildings as well as all owned or occupied property, including parking lots and garages, vehicles parked on the school property, University-owned vehicles and all leased property.
“Our goal in implementing this policy is to provide a clean and healthy work and patient-care environment for everyone, to reduce the toll of tobacco-related illness and to reduce tobacco use among employees, students, visitors and patients interested in quitting,” said Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “As a health-care organization, this is the right thing to do.”
A variety of free or reduced-cost resources will be available to those employees who choose to quit, including smoking cessation classes and telephone counseling. Hilltop Campus employees are also eligible for the smoking cessation resources, although that campus has not adopted a similar tobacco-free policy.
The executive faculty and the dean of the School of Medicine decided to make the School of Medicine tobacco-free based on recommendations from the Tobacco Policy Work Group, which is chaired by James Crane, M.D., associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs and chief executive officer of the Faculty Practice Plan.
“This was not a quick or easy decision,” Shapiro said. “We understand that this will be a time of transition for the School of Medicine, but we are confident that it is the best move for the entire community.”
Smoking huts will be removed from school property in April. At that time, signs communicating the school’s tobacco-free policy will be placed around the medical school property and facilities.
The School of Medicine has also assembled an employee advisory group to help establish the most effective ways to implement this policy and to communicate with employees regarding the resources available to help smokers who want to quit.
This group, made up of current smokers, former smokers and non-smokers, will provide recommendations and feedback to the Tobacco Policy Work Group, provide ideas on ways in which the medical school can best help people who want to quit smoking and assist with planning an event for the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout Nov. 16.
By Sept. 15, employees who smoke and would like to quit will have access to Call-2-Quit, a free and confidential phone service that provides personal support to quit smoking.
Call-2-Quit (1-866-902-QUIT or 1-866-902-7848) is offered as part of research being conducted at the School of Medicine to examine two approaches to telephone counseling.
Those who enroll in the study will have seven sessions with trained smoking-cessation counselors who will provide education, help explore reasons and motivations for smoking, identify key situations that trigger the urge to smoke and prepare participants for the challenges of quitting. After a participant stops smoking, the remaining calls provide support and coping techniques. Study participants also will have two follow-up assessments at six months and 12 months.
Mark Walker, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Health Behavior Research and principal investigator of the Call-2-Quit study, said it is important to have various options because quitting smoking is not a one-size-fits-all proposition.
“This program was developed because we know there are people who would find it convenient to talk to someone over the telephone for help,” Walker said. “We’ve reviewed telephone interventions from around the country and have brought together the best ideas from all of them.”
In addition, Freedom from Smoking classes at the medical school will begin in January 2007.
As a part of the annual review of employee health benefits, a determination will be made regarding which prescription medications commonly used to assist with smoking cessation will be available through the University’s health insurance coverage effective Jan. 1.
There are also various community organizations that offer resources on how to quit, counseling and other services for little or no cost, such as the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Nicotine Anonymous, Smokefree.gov and others.
The Human Resources office at the School of Medicine has a list of those community resources and a list of fitness and wellness facilities at or near the school that are available to employees at a discount.