VALDOSTA — South Georgia Medical Center is looking to become a smoke-free campus starting next month.

At a recent Hospital Authority board meeting, Dr. Brian Dawson proposed prohibiting smoking, including cigarettes and vaping devices, on hospital property. As of now, there are designated smoking areas on the hospital campus.

“I think most hospitals in the state are smoke-free campuses, in fact some of them don’t even allow employees to come to work for them if they smoke,” Dawson said.

Before the meeting, he said he spoke with many hospital staff members and they agreed going smoke-free would be reasonable and appropriate.

Employees will be able to smoke but not on campus, he said.

This means there would no longer be designated places on the SGMC campus for people to smoke. 

“I’m sure many of our senior people can remember back in the day when the doctors and the nurses would sit around the nurses station and smoke cigarettes, and it was perfectly acceptable,” Dawson said. “Just like that has moved, we are also seeing a move to have a smoke-free campus.”

He said a smoke-free campus would set a good example for patients and set an appropriate tone for hospital employees.

Hospital Authority Chairman Sam Allen said he was surprised to hear SGMC isn’t a smoke-free campus. 

This would be considered a policy change, meaning the hospital’s legal counsel would need to write up the proper language then be approved by the authority.

Michele Madison, the authority’s legal representative, said about 78 percent of hospitals in the state went smoke-free two years ago.

Allen asked for Madison to write a policy to present during the authority board meeting scheduled for Sept. 18. 

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256