Robert McLean: All VA medical centers and facilities around the country and there are hundreds of them on one October have gone smoke free. Some of the medical centers had previously had smoking available for patients in an outside area that was away from any care, that has all been eliminated. And the reason for that is that we’re a health care facility, and we want to provide the best care environment we can for our patients and for our staff and, and for visitors. So I think it’s very clear that smoking is not good for people in general, and that’s widely known and accepted. And we just needed to go to the next level and make all of our facilities none smoking.
Mackenzie Pearce: This isn’t something new. Both Couse and Upstate have bans 100 feet away from the building.
Robert McLean: Sure. Sure.
Mackenzie Pearce: So you guys are next in line with that?
Robert McLean: And you know, we didn’t do it because of that. But we have this facility here in Syracuse has been smoke free for a number of years, we had a small shelter that was available to our veterans. And there are a few veterans who actually live here we are on our eighth floor, we have a Community Living Center, two of those veterans were smokers. And we’ve been working with them for the last several months to help them withdraw from smoking with medications and therapies and things that are very successful. So there is no reason to maintain that shelter any longer. And we wouldn’t be able to anyway, because our national offices that we need to, we need to close it down. So we did. And it’s actually been fairly well received. And but it’s importnat. What we’ve done is important for the health of our veterans as well as the people who work and visit here.
Mackenzie Pearce: So only two patients out of the eight you said?
Robert McLean: Well on our eighth floor, we have a Community Living Centers there’s about 40 veterans who live there full time, it’s a it’s a Community Living Center for veterans, and two of them were smokers. And so, so we have been able our staff have been able to work with them and mitigate the impacts of the of that not being able to smoke with some therapies and medications and things of that nature. So again, as a healthcare institution, it would be sort of counterintuitive if we permit smoking. And as you point out, most of not all civilian medical facilities around the country are completely none smoking as are we.
Mackenzie Pearce: So this has been pretty well received, for the most part?
Robert McLean: Right, I mean, essentially, we have to remember that we have been smoke free for years here, but for our staff and patients that come and go. The only, The only caveat to that actually carve out to that had been that small smoking shelter. So for us, it wasn’t a big change. But it was an important change in terms of the projection that we want to provide the public and the perception, which is reality here that we’re all about health care for our veterans and allowing smoking anywhere near our facility, and certainly in our facility was just not conducive to that mission.
Mackenzie Pearce: How is this ban enforced?
Robert McLean: Well, we have, we have our regular staff who might see someone smoking, certainly not in the facility, but adjacent to the facility in an area they’re not supposed to be in, we would remind them that, that they that they’re not supposed to do that. And then we have the a police force that will go out and do that. And and if if need be, we may come to pass that we need to issue of some sort of warnings and things of that nature. But we’re hoping that most people will comply with our with our requests that they not smoke.
Mackenzie Pearce: Its been one week since that ban has taken place.
Robert McLean: Been a week and a day. Yeah. And so I think, again, I don’t think it’s been a huge change for us. Nor do I think it’s a huge change to the expectation that I don’t think people have an expectation that they can smoke, certainly in restaurants or certainly the medical medical facilities. And again, ours was only a small sliver of patients that we were able to maintain that for and now not having to do that. It made good sense for us to do exactly what we were down which is ban smoking, anywhere in the facility, certainly or anywhere adjacent to the facility, so.
