As part of its healthy dining initiative, Renton, Wash.-based Providence Health & Services has announced it will no longer sell or stock sugary drinks in its Oregon hospitals and business offices, according to a report by The Oregonian.
Banning the sale of sugary drinks makes Providence the largest healthcare organization on the West Coast to follow in the footsteps of the East Coast hospitals that have already done so.
The health system has already removed the drinks at its Northeast Portland, Ore., business office and will phase them out at all eight of Providence's hospitals, clinics and businesses offices in Oregon over the next two months.
Despite the sale ban, patients will still be able to request sugary drinks and visitors and employees can bring them into the hospitals, clinics and offices.
Included in the ban are all regular sodas, energy drinks and sports drinks, prepackaged sweetened coffee and tea drinks, lemonade, punch and fruit and vegetable drinks that aren't 100 percent juice. In their place, fruit-infused water will be offered in all dining facilities.
Providence's Director of Health and Nutrition Sandy Miller expressed hope that the move will create healthier communities and encourage healthier choices, according to the report.
"We want to create a culture of health," Ms. Miller told The Oregonian. "Every day we see the results of people making poor health choices. All of us — employers and employees — pay for healthcare. We all have a stake in this."