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Hospital board to craft a tobacco prohibition policy for nursing home

Anniston Star (AL) - 11/22/2014

Nov. 22--HEFLIN -- Beginning in December, Cleburne County Nursing Home staff members who smoke will have to refrain from smoking at work.

The Cleburne County Hospital Board Thursday night voted 5-1 to implement a "zero-tolerance" tobacco usage policy for the nursing home employees. Voting no was board member Clarence Duckworth.

The policy -- which has yet to be written -- will take effect Dec. 1. Currently the nursing home has no policy in place dealing with smoking, said Eura Harrell, nursing home administrator.

Duckworth argued against the policy, asking that the board instead designate a smoking area completely apart from the building. Anyone who smokes or has smoked knows how difficult it is to stop smoking and to go without a cigarette for an entire day, Duckworth said. He said when an employer of his implemented a no-smoking-on-the-premises policy, smokers would cross a busy highway to get their tobacco fix off the property.

Board Member Dan Hopkins argued the nursing home isn't just any employer; it's a health facility and needs to protect the residents from hazards including second-hand smoke. He noted that many other nursing homes have no-smoking policies for their staff.

There is a designated location for smoking now, but, said board member Pam Richardson, it's too close to the building and the smoke gets into the dining room. The smoking location, which is outside but adjacent to the building, is the only one the nursing home was allowed to set up because such an area has to have a sprinkler system, Harrell said.

Harrell said there are three nursing home residents who smoke and they are taken outside the building to smoke by staff or by family. She said only a few staff members smoke.

The policy implementation voted on Thursday would apply only to staff members, not residents.

Sandy Weston, one of the board members who will be writing the policy, said she is reviewing policies that are already in effect at other nursing homes and will use them to frame the new policy.

In other business the board members:

--Elected Denise White as chairwoman of the board.

--Approved a resolution requesting banks that do business with the board, BB&T, Small Town Bank and Metro Bank, talk to individual members of the board about the board accounts.

--Approved hiring Lance Turner to survey the board's 12.5 acres near the nursing home in preparation to create a 30-year improvement plan, including adding a parking lot, assisted living apartments or a senior center.

--Approved allowing the nursing home to defer payments on the loan it took from the board to pay its fines levied by the state for problems found by state inspectors. The board did not set a date for payments to begin again.

--Approved purchasing Christmas hams for the employees of the nursing home and Cleburne County Emergency Medical Service.

--Approved allowing EMS to buy a stretcher for up to $12,173 and a cardiac monitor for $31,538. It also approved additional construction on the EMS building of up to $35,000.

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(c)2014 The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.)

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