The UHealth System has a longstanding commitment to serving our patients and improving health in our communities. We feel it's important to promote an environment that supports wellness and disease prevention as well as medical treatment. We also have a commitment to providing our faculty, staff and students with a healthy work and learning environment. We now call on our staff and customers to model health-promoting behaviors while on our properties.

For information about how the use of tobacco products contributes to cancer, and for cancer statistics, please visit our Web site UHealthSmokeFree.com. Our Purpose Statement outlines our decision.

The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine plans to go smoke-free on or around March 2010.

In addition to the state's increasing incidence of cancer, many people are not aware of the negative impact that use of tobacco/smoking has on health:

• Tobacco/smoking is a lead factor in heart disease, cancer stroke and lung disease.
• According to the National Cancer Institute, in the United States, approximately 38,000 deaths each year are caused by exposure to secondhand smoke.
• Smoking costs the U.S. approximately $97.2 billion annually in health care and lost productivity.
• Patients who smoke regularly before surgery have twice the risk of wound infections as non-smokers.
• Smoking slows wound healing.
• Broken bones take nearly twice as long to heal for smokers.

We expect employees to be ambassadors and representatives of our organizations and respect neighboring properties outside our campus. We will enforce work rules that outline when employees can take breaks and if they can leave campus on their breaks. UM and JHS personnel will patrol our campus and the immediate surrounding areas and ask people not to smoke in the vicinity.

We will ask employees, patients and visitors not to trespass on private properties surrounding our campus. Private property owners have the right to enforce their boundaries including trespass warnings, etc.

We expect employees to be ambassadors and representatives of our organizations. We now call on our staff and customers to model health-promoting behaviors while on UM medical campus.

Employees who know someone is using tobacco on one of our health-care campuses are encouraged to politely explain our policy and either share the Patient/Visitor Resource Card or directions to other available resources and information.

If a patient or visitor repeatedly violates the tobacco-free policy, employees are encouraged to notify someone on the patient's health-care team or security personnel.

If an employee repeatedly violates the tobacco-free policy, another employee can report them to a supervisor or security personnel.

UM faculty, staff and students are asked to comply with the March 2010 smoke-free guidelines and to follow the new policy once it is available. UM employees will be expected to comply with the policy (http://www.med.miami.edu/depts.asp). This policy outlines the process that manages violations of work rules. UM employees who do not comply with the non-smoking policy on campus will be subject to the disciplinary process outlined in the policy. The smoke-free policy extends to public areas outside our buildings, including parking garages as well as personal vehicles on our campuses.

Non-compliant employees who do not cooperate or repeatedly violate work rules and guidelines will be reported to their supervisor. The supervisor will be responsible for enforcing work rules for their staff.

We will follow standard disciplinary procedures for compliance problems.

There are a wide selection of counseling services, self-help materials and medicines available today to help smokers quit successfully.

If you are a UM employee or student who is interested in quitting, please visit the UM Smoke-Free Campus web site at UHealthSmokeFree.com for the many resources available to you. It includes links to employee-specific resources, including the UM Area Health Education Center (AHEC) and other AHEC's throughout Broward, Palm Beach, Everglades, Florida Keys, and Miami-Dade.

In addition to the above, UM AHEC offers a 6-week smoking cessation program in the Wellness Center. The program offers the following:

• Participants who are enrolled in UM's health care plan may participate in the Be Smoke Free Program free of charge.
• Program offers several interventions that individuals can choose from after initial assessment. This includes pharmacological treatments (medications will be available under the prescription and management of a skilled medical provider and offered to qualified UM employees, free of charge), group support, acupuncture, hypnosis, free quit kits, cardio wellness smoking track, follow-up support groups and one-on-one coaching sessions.
• The groups will meet for approximately 90 minutes for six consecutive weeks and will include education, group support and medical oversight with pharmaceutical smoking cessation medications.
• Prescription aids available for free of charge at any campus pharmacy to individuals enrolled in UM's health care plan. Vouchers will be provided to eligible participants once enrolled in the Smoke Free Program.
• Because success at quitting is more likely when partners quit together, spouses and partners are invited to participate at no cost also.
• For non-employees of UM, Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) is offered free of charge through the Quitline at 1-877822-6669 (as noted above).
• Upon successful completion of the program, each participant will receive a certificate which will entitle them to receive a reduction in their health insurance rate.

You may view the various smoking cessation classes and assistance programs for all of the above resources at our web site: UHealthSmokeFree.com.

Additional groups will be offered as demand requires. Because a brief assessment is required, please call early to enroll. For more information or to enroll, please contact your Tobacco Cessation Coordinator at 305-689-5876 OR medical campus employees may call 2-5876.

Please visit our Smoke-Free Campus web site at UHealthSmokeFree.com for additional information and resources. We've included a list of smoking-cessation classes and resources available throughout our South Florida communities.

We are also sharing the following public resources with all our employees, students, patients and visitors:

• The Florida Department of Health offers a toll-free Quitline, 1-877-U-CAN-NOW (1-877-822-6669), and a web site, www.floridaquitline.com, with free resources in English and Spanish and counselors available 24 hours a day.
• The American Cancer Society offers a toll-free phone line, 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669).
• The National Cancer Institute offers a toll-free phone line, 1-877-44U-QUIT (1-877-448-7848), for access to English- and Spanish-speaking counselors.
• Miami-Dade AHEC, 305-597-3640 (smokefree@mdahec.org)
• Visit Smokefree.gov for additional resources.

Physicians on the UM and JHS medical staff will prescribe medical intervention for nicotine-addicted patients as needed. These interventions may include the nicotine patch, etc.

We will also share state and national resources (including hotlines, web sites, etc.) with all patients and visitors who wish to stop smoking.

If you are a UM OR JHS patient and you would like access to resources about becoming smoke-free, please let your health-care provider know. Inpatients will be assessed for free nicotine patches and other resources to help them manage cravings and/or quit smoking.

Please visit our Smoke-Free web site (UHealthSmokeFree.com) for additional information and resources. We've included a list of tobacco-cessation classes and resources available throughout our South Florida communities.

Please see the public resources above that we are sharing with everyone.

Visitors will not be permitted to smoke while on campus. Employees will be asked to share resource information with visitors.

Please visit our Smoke-Free web site (UHealthSmokeFree.com) for additional information and resources. We've included a list of smoking-cessation classes and resources available throughout our South Florida communities.

We are also sharing the public resources outlined above with all our employees, patients and visitors.

Our goal is to educate and promote wellness by preventing smoking on our campus. We will also offer resources to help people quit smoking.

If family members of hospitalized patients wish to leave campus to smoke