A survey by the Joint Commission predicts that most U.S. hospitals will be smoke-free throughout their campuses by the end of 2009, according to release by the Joint Commission.
By Feb. 2008, more than 45 percent of hospitals had adopted a smoke-free campus policy, compared with 3 percent in 1992, when the Joint Commission introduced standards requiring accredited hospitals to prohibit smoking within the hospital.
The survey found that non-teaching and non-profit hospitals were more likely to have smoke-free campus policies, but it found little relationship between smoke-free campus policies and provision of smoking cessation counseling to patients.
Read the Joint Commission's release about smoke-free hospitals.