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Beebe Healthcare to be commended for policy

December 8, 2017

Beebe Healthcare's mission is to make Sussex County the healthiest county in Delaware. Beebe wants to continue to promote the health and wellness of our community and our team members.

Beebe Healthcare (including Beebe Medical Group) will no longer hire applicants (including contractors, travelers, consultants) who use tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and chewing or smokeless tobacco starting with job offers dated Jan. 1, 2013 and after.

While the dangers of smoking and breathing secondhand smoke have been well-known and documented for decades, policies in support of protecting nonsmokers have been steady, but slow.

We can now enjoy a meal, fly on a plane, and spend time on the beach and boardwalk without having to inhale toxic fumes. Fortunately for our children, many neighborhood pools and playgrounds now forbid smoking in the surrounding areas as well.
But there remains an environment in which exposure to smoke is inevitable, and the consequences dire: home healthcare.

For those patients receiving home healthcare from an employee of Beebe, they can be assured the healthcare worker will not reek of cigarette smoke, and the patient will not have to endure the effects of smoke exposure that even smoke lingering on clothes or a bag can elicit.

A nonsmoking health worker visiting a smoking patient in their home is a different story and a complex one, to say the least. Yes, many argue, people have a right to smoke in their own home. But what if their smoking causes illness and disease in the healthcare workers caring for them? Does the healthcare worker have a right to not be exposed to toxins that cause cancer and asthma at worst, and a coughing fit at best?

What is the cost to both individuals and our society at large to have healthy nonsmokers constantly exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace? For this writer, it was adult-onset asthma requiring a daily inhaler and two rescue inhalers - depending on how lucky or unlucky I am avoiding smoke and other irritants, not to mention thousands of dollars in medical expenses given I had no history of breathing issues.

There are organizations with policies that seek to minimize the exposure healthcare providers endure. The policies may include: no smoking prior to or when receiving care, smoking in an area of the home away from where care is provided, opening windows or doors during visits when possible, and so on.

If there is any doubt Beebe’s commitment to community health is making a difference, consider this: the agency for which I work recently lost one of our stellar CNAs who quit smoking (and lost 30 pounds) in order to work for Beebe. Beebe is very lucky to have her, and there is one less person smoking in this world.

It is time more healthcare organizations follow suit. We can do better.

Tara Sheldon, MSW
Rehoboth Beach

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