hospital starts smoking ban

HUDSON - Debbie Siver and Chuck Nagel got a head start on their New Year's resolutions, thanks to their employer, Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point. The hospital will go smoke-free today, not just inside buildings but across its entire campus. The ban applies to employees, patients and visitors. Regional Medical Center administrators didn't just banish smoking from the hospital. They set up smoking cessation classes, handed out free nicotine patches and gave other anti-smoking aids to employees hoping to kick the habit, said Kurt Conover, business development manager. Regional Medical Center is joining its sister HCA Corp. facility in west Pasco, Community Hospital of New Port Richey, in banning smoking. Community Hospital has been smoke-free for more than a year. So Siver and Nagel figured the time was right to break the tobacco habit after decades of lighting up. Plus they stand to save thousands of dollars. The employees took somewhat different approaches to snuff out the cigarette habit, but both decided to try Chantix. About 6 million have tried the prescription drug.

Chantix does not contain nicotine, unlike alternatives such as nicotine patches. Also known as varenicline tartrate, Chantix manipulates nicotine receptors in the brain. This helps reduce the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and blocks the effect of nicotine in people who try to start smoking again. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Chantix as a stop-smoking aid in May 2006. The drug, however, might not be suitable for everyone. The FDA issued a public health advisory Feb. 1 for Chantix. The agency asked the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer, to add safety warnings on possible neuropsychiatric side effects from Chantix, including agitation, depression and suicidal thoughts. After several weeks, though, Siver and Nagel reported Chantix has been working well for them. Children Inspire Siver

For 24 years, Siver had been puffing a pack of cigarettes a day. Her children, Gabby, 12, and Jordan, 9, were her stop-smoking inspiration. Jordan woke up from a nightmare one night and went crying to his mom. He had dreamed that she had died because she hadn't quit smoking. The boy was shaking

."That opened my eyes, too," Siver said. Siver, who works in Regional Medical Center's risk management department and as a patient advocate, quit smoking three months ago.

"You know what the best thing is, that my kids will never smoke," Siver said. "I can guarantee that without a shadow of doubt because they've seen what I've gone through." Siver, 41, picked up the tobacco habit as a junior in high school. "We used to be able to smoke out back at the high school," Siver remembered. Schools no longer permit on-campus smoking. "It's not cool anymore," Siver said. Siver has already seen health benefits from breaking the tobacco habit. She used to blame allergies for her persistent cough and frequent throat clearing. Her husband Larry noticed recently that she doesn't cough anymore. Larry quit smoking cold turkey six years ago, so he was supportive of her battle against nicotine addiction. Siver's mother, Pat Loudis, was grateful as well to have a smoke-free daughter. "My mother said that's the best Christmas gift I could give her," Siver said. Co-workers also have been a big help, Siver said. Sherrie Manulak, the hospital's director of risk management, checked on Siver's progress every day. "He actually saved my life," Siver once told Steve Rector, Regional Medical Center's chief executive officer, about the decision to make the hospital smoke-free.
"I said it a million times I was going to quit," Siver recalled. With the hospital's ban on smoking, she believes she can make it stick this time.
After she first quit, Siver took up walking for exercise around the hospital campus on Fivay Road. She joined a gym to help counteract stress and ward off gaining weight.
Other New Year's resolutions will include a healthier diet to go along with her tobacco-free lifestyle.

"If I can do it, you can do it," Siver concluded with a message to smokers.
Nagel's Wife Quit, Too
For five weeks, Chuck Nagel, who works in Regional Medical Center's nuclear medicine department, has gone without cigarettes. Nagel, who like Siver is 41, went through a pack of cigarettes a day for more than two decades.
His example inspired his wife, Anita to stop, too. She's been smoke-free for two weeks.
Between them, the Nagels used to split a carton or two of cigarettes a week. With name-brand cigarettes selling for about $28 a carton, Chuck figures they will save up to $2,000 a year.

"I wish I never started smoking," Nagel said. "I enjoy it, but I know it's bad for me."
Nagel picked up the tobacco habit in high school. It just seemed like something the cool crowd did, he said.
"Back then you're never going to die," Nagel said about his attitudes as a high school student. He began to grasp his own mortality as he grew older.
When he swore off cigarettes, Nagel made sure all his co-workers and friends knew.

"I got support" from them, Nagel said. "I think that's important, too."
"I tried several times" to quit, Nagel recalled. "I think it's going to stick this time."
The reaction of his friends and co-workers to his quitting smoking has been "if Chuck can do it, anybody can do it," Nagel said with a chuckle.