HELP US CLEAR THE AIR
We all know about the health risks of smoking and how hard it is to quit. Inside View reminds us that the Health System has several services to help smokers who want to quit for good!
Everyone who has kicked a habit needs a boost now and then. To provide that kind of boost, UMHS is launching its Help Clear the Air campaign to coordinate with Lung Cancer Awareness Month and the Nov. 17 Great American Smokeout. Brightly colored posters, signs and other items will adorn our halls to remind faculty, staff, patients and visitors that UMHS is a smoke-free environment.
“We’re very proud of our policy, and where we’ve gone with it,” says Linda Thomas, manager of UMHS Tobacco Consultation Service and a member of the UMHS Smoke-Free Task Force.
In 1999, UMHS was the largest health care system in Michigan to adopt a smoke-free policy. Since then, Health System faculty and staff have developed a number of new quit-smoking resources for patients, employees and the community.
UMHS’s inpatient smoking cessation program, for example, is widely recognized. When patients identify themselves as smokers, a tobacco cessation counselor visits them within 24 hours of admission. If the person is ready to quit, the counselor will find a program to suit the individual’s needs. According to Thomas, the Mayo Clinic is one of several hospitals developing a similar program.
“So many patients tell us that their stay at our hospital is the first time they’ve ever spent in a smoke-free environment,” says Thomas. “This has convinced them that they can quit.”
In addition to TCS, other UMHS entities are major players in the smoke-free game. M-CARE’s tobacco cessation program offers M-CARE and M-CAID members coverage for approved smoking cessation classes. This unique I Can Quit program makes use of personal telephone health coaches and a pharmacy benefit covering certain smoking cessation aids. The Turner Senior Resource Center offers both a Senior Smoking Cessation Group and a Stay-Quit Group—sometimes they help people who smoked for 50 or 60 years quit and stay smoke-free! And the new Women’s Respiratory Clinic, directed by MeiLan K. Han, M.D., is treating patients and referring them for pulmonary rehabilitation or smoking cessation classes as needed.
“There are tons of great resources at UMHS, and we’re hoping the new Help Clear the Air campaign will promote and celebrate a policy that creates a healthy working and hospital environment,” Thomas says.
Additional Contact Information:
- Tobacco Consultation Service: e-mail or call 734-936-5988.
- M-CARE: E-mail or call 734-332-2493. Members with hearing impairments may call 800-649-3777 (TDD).
- Women’s Respiratory Clinic: call 734-647-9000.
- Official smoking policy
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