Any applicant for a job at the University of Missouri’s Health Care system will have to be nicotine-free starting January 1, 2015.
Current employees will be grandfathered in, and tobacco users that check “yes” that they’re indeed smokers can reapply for employment in the system after ninety days (hopefully being smoke-free).
Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine Kevin Everett said banning nicotine isn’t a new concept.
“Numerous health care organizations have adopted not hiring those who use tobacco products, or nicotine-free policies, across the nation,” Everett said.
MU Health Care Chief Executive Officer Mitch Wasden said the new policy will help the hospital “lead by example.”
“Improving the health of our patients, as well as the community and the state, is central to our mission as a leading academic medical center,” Wasden said.
Everett agreed, “One of Mu Health Care’s primary missions is ensuring the health of our patients. And as we move forward and try to advance and become one of the leaders in the state as an academic health setting, we want to make sure we’re leading by example. We’re creating a culture of health here, and our employees will take the lead on that.”
MU adjunct law professor Sandy Davidson said that the new policy is not discriminatory:
“There is no constitutional right to smoke, so from that perspective, there’s not a legal problem … employers can’t discriminate in many different ways, discriminating against smoking would not fall into any protected categories.”
Included in the list of banned products are “cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, snuff, clove cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.”
If MU is concerned about health issues, will there soon be a questionnaire that includes a checklist about a prospective employee’s diet?
In addition, as a patient, would you care that your doctor is a smoker? Or would you care more that he knows what he’s doing?
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