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MEMORIAL MED GOING SMOKE FREE
Monday, October 29th, 2007 -- 8:43 am
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
Smokers: listen up.
Memorial Medical Center in Neillsville is going completely smoke free on Thursday, November 1.
That means no smoking in the building, no smoking on the sidewalk, no smoking in the parking lot…AND no smoking in vehicles in the parking lots.
"The Wisconsin Hospital Association has encouraged all 128 members to be tobacco free as November 1, 2007," explains hospital spokesperson Lora Wagner. "So we started planning for it over a year ago now."
Memorial Medical Center has around 325 employees. Last year, when the move was announced, around 50 smoked. Since then, five have quit and around 10 are trying.
"We're offering employees $300 worth of reimbursements for a prescription, non-prescription products, for classes—whatever they would like," Wagner says.
But some smokers will likely take issue with the strict requirement that even bans smoking in vehicles.
"There isn't any type of illness that smoking will make better. Our ultimate goal is to improve the health, not only of our patients, but the entire community. We definitely felt this was a stance we ought to be taking," Wagner concludes.
Smoking is the "number one" customer complaint at the facility.
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