Smokers will be denied new employment at Penrose Hospital

Smokers need not apply.

That’s the message from Penrose Hospital, which will start testing job applicants for a drug called Cotinine. That drug is in tobacco and can stay in your system for days.

“I understand hospitals, restaurants, everything out of respect to others shouldn’t have smokers or should take it off the grounds, I agree with that,” said Penrose patient Joshua Gadway.

But he wouldn’t think twice if he saw an employee having a cigarette on the sidewalk.

“I don’t think a cigarette has anything to do with anybody’s ability to work,” Gadway said.

Penrose CEO Margaret Sabin does have a problem with it.

“We are walking our talk,” she said. “Our mission is to improve the health of the community we serve. This is a logical part of that journey.”

Penrose is already a smoke-free campus, but it’s about to take that ban to a higher level.

Starting Jan. 1, 2015, any applicant who tests positive for tobacco will not be considered for the job at Penrose Hospital.

There is a bottom financial line in this: More smokers mean higher insurance premiums and higher coverage costs.

“We are self insured, we cover our own insurance. The answer is yes, to have a healthier workforce is less costly in the long run,” Sabin said.

Even smokers trying to quit won’t be considered.

That’s because those patches and gums still have nicotine, and could fail a urine test up to five days after inhaling or ingesting tobacco.

But after 90 days of being nicotine free they can re-apply.

“If they really want to come here, they have a period of time that they could quit. And we’ll bring them into a hospital that every day will uplift them,” Sabin said.

The hospital insists they’re only the first of many that will follow suit, but it still doesn’t sit well with some.

“They can no longer pursue the career to save peoples’ lives because they smoke cigarettes? It doesn’t add up,” Gadway said.

Penrose says this rule doesn’t affect current employees.