Madisonville Hospital Bans Smoking

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Hospital patients, employees and visitors will be banned from smoking, using chewing tobacco and puffing on electronic cigarettes at Baptist Hospital Madisonville and its various campuses around western Kentucky. The hospital is implementing the new rule on Tuesday. Hospital CEO Bert Whitaker says both patients and visitors have objected to entering the hospital through a cloud of cigarette smoke that wafted over from nearby smoking areas.

The former Trover Health System, which merged with Louisville's Baptist Healthcare System on November 1st, began the process to implement its smoke-free policy in 2011 by forming a committee comprised of state and local health professionals and hospital staff. The ban applies to facilities in Madisonville, Providence, Greenville, Dawson Springs and Hopkinsville