Upper Chesapeake Medical Center to Stop Hiring Smokers

The largest private employer in Harford County announced new policies that will affect who can work there and what people can do on its campuses, including Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air.

Use of any tobacco product will be banned inside and outside of Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air, Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace and other University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health properties, according to a statement from the health system.

Electronic cigarettes are included in the ban, and so is smoking in vehicles parked on Upper Chesapeake property, the statement said.

Starting July 1, University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health will no longer hire people who smoke, according to a statement from the health system.

“Health care providers have a special responsibility to set an example for other organizations and the communities they serve,” Upper Chesapeake Health President/CEO Lyle Sheldon said.

Two other hospitals in Maryland have set the example already—Carroll Hospital Center was the first to implement a nicotine-free hiring policy, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2015. Then Anne Arundel Medical Center announced in June that it would implement a hiring ban on smokers, effective July 2015.

Upper Chesapeake said in a statement Monday that its current employees would be grandfathered, and the new policy of not hiring people who use tobacco products would apply to candidates hired after July 1, 2015.

“A tobacco-free environment puts patients, visitors, and employees first by providing a healthy, tobacco-free atmosphere, encouraging both patients and employees to quit tobacco use, and lowers long-term health care costs,” Sheldon said.

Employees enrolled in the Upper Chesapeake health plan will be supported in efforts to quit including coaching, classes and pharmaceutical aids at no cost, according to a statement from the health system.

“Although these changes will be a challenge for some, we have an opportunity to serve as a model for other employers in working to achieve better health,” Sheldon continued. “We are one step closer to achieving our vision of creating the healthiest community in Maryland.”

Photo of University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health Center courtesy of Upper Chesapeake.

Related: Anne Arundel Medical Campus to Ban All Tobacco, Impose Hiring Ban on Smokers