A controlled trial to implement smoke-free hospitals

Hospitals would logically become leaders if the nation is to accept former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's challenge to make its public institutions smoke-free by the year 2000. We tested whether printed materials, workshops, newsletters, and consultations could increase both the number of smoke-free hospitals in a state and the rate at which they became smoke-free. All acute-care hospitals in Minnesota (n = 166) were compared to a sample of 51 acute-care hospitals in a reference area, western Wisconsin, before and after a one-year campaign. While 2.4% of the hospitals in Minnesota were smoke-free before the campaign, none of the hospitals in the reference area sample was smoke-free at this time. Both areas experienced a significant increase in the proportion of hospitals that became smoke-free during the year--30.7% of the Minnesota hospitals and 15.7% of the hospitals in the reference area sample (p less than .01) were smoke-free after the one-year campaign--and the campaign did appear to marginally increase the rate of adoption in Minnesota over that of the reference area (p = .08). The results of this study indicate that smoke-free hospitals are feasible and that a statewide initiative can facilitate the hospitals' decision to become smoke-free.