Everyone saves money when smokers kick the habit

Each new year presents us with the time-honored opportunity to make resolutions that better ourselves, those around us and our communities.

If you haven't resolved to quit smoking in 2009, consider that Morristown Memorial Hospital has joined the ranks of more than 1,000 hospitals nationwide that have implemented smoke-free policies. The hospital is now totally smoke free; patients, visitors and employees are no longer able to light up anywhere on hospital property, including parking areas and outdoor grounds.

Smoking is the top cause of cancer, heart disease and stroke and one of the main factors behind low birth weight and premature babies. According to the American Lung Association, an estimated 438,000 Americans die each year from diseases directly related to cigarette smoking, and in New Jersey alone, tobacco use is attributed to 11,000 deaths per year. Thousands more deaths can be attributed to secondhand smoke. On top of all that, billions of dollars are spent each year on medical costs related to smoking as well as lost productivity.

As a leader in the treatment of heart disease and cancer, every day we advise our patients about the risks of smoking. By going smoke free, we are taking our own advice.

Last Monday, Atlantic Health's campuses, including Morristown Memorial Hospital, Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute and Atlantic Health's corporate headquarters in Morristown and Overlook Hospital in Summit, officially went completely tobacco-free. This initiative, for which we began planning in 2007, emphasizes our commitment to health and better living.

Smoking had always been prohibited inside our hospitals and facilities. However, in the past, it was customary to allow visitors and employees to smoke on the grounds in designated areas outside.

It was a courtesy we and other health care institutions were known to extend. Ultimately, we, along with several other New Jersey hospital systems working with the American Cancer Society as part of the NJ Tobacco-Free Hospital Campus Collaborative, have determined that practice runs counter to the mission of helping those who come to our facilities and services to lead healthier, happier and longer lives. All of our facilities now prohibit the smoking of cigarettes, cigars, pipes and other forms of tobacco anywhere on their campuses.

Going smoke-free is about allowing people to make decisions for themselves, but understanding that we as a health care organization have a responsibility to promote health in every aspect of what we do. It's about excluding an unhealthy activity from our grounds, while giving people the tools to quit and the opportunities to participate in healthier activities.

It's about creating an example for the communities we serve as a leader in health care. In addition to prohibiting tobacco use on our grounds and spreading the message of going tobacco-free throughout our facilities, we will offer smokers the option of help should they decide to make a lifestyle change, providing smoking cessation programs for patients, visitors, the community and staff. For more information about these programs, please visit atlantichealth.org.

For us, last Monday was the beginning not of a simple change in policy, but of a new, exciting challenge: one which we believe will help us to further fulfill our mission as an organization dedicating to improving people's health and helping them to live better, fuller, longer lives.