Ask HRC: Enforcing No-Smoking Policies

An HRC member, noting that their facility has had trouble enforcing no-smoking policies, contaced us to ask about sample policies and other guidance for enforcing smoking bans.

Many hospitals that have moved to become smoke-free facilities shared their stories. A discussion board hosted by Joint Effort New York, a group of that state's quality improvement professionals, includes many of these stories and some sample policies. The sample policies include documents from the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) and Riverview Medical Center (Red Bank, New Jersey) as well as a generic policy. Common elements of these policies include adequate signage, the promotion of smoking...