THOUSAND OAKS : Hospital Is 1st to Ban All Indoor Smoking
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Patients who smoke at Los Robles Regional Medical Center must be rolled outside in wheelchairs to have a cigarette under a new no-smoking policy.
The Thousand Oaks hospital is the only one of the eight hospitals in Ventura County to ban all smoking indoors. Previously, patients in the 288-bed facility could light up in their rooms if their doctors gave them written permission to smoke.
Hospital staff and visitors had to smoke outdoors even before the new policy went into effect Jan. 1.
Nurses on duty “use their best judgment” in determining who may be taken outside for a cigarette, hospital spokeswoman Kathy Flaherty said. Patients no longer need written permission from their doctors to smoke.
Even patients who can walk must be transported around the hospital in wheelchairs for safety, Flaherty said.
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