Hehe! I sure know what you mean!
Posted on 05/05/2006 3:45:22 AM PDT by SheLion
Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne found them dodging traffic in wheelchairs and walkers. Folks are starting to get used to seeing "no-smoking" signs at bars, restaurants and public buildings. But, what happens when a nursing home bans smoking without making any accommodations for residents?
Crossing the street in front of the Bremerton Health and Rehabilitation Center is not for the faint of heart, but that's exactly where we found the faint of heart traveling.
No matter their disability, if residents like Donald Pike want to smoke, the center told them they have to leave the property.
Chris: "I don't see a crosswalk."
Donald: "There is no crosswalk."
Chris: "I don't see a real smooth curb."
Donald: "No. No. Smooth curb. No. Nothing saying stop when somebody’s crossing the road."
We videotaped disabled residents limping, shuffling, even creeping their wheelchairs into the road with no staff around to help. One man nearly fell. Another disabled smoker couldn't do anything but watch.
“It's scary and especially if it rains, if we have a little snow, somebody could slip and fall and hurt themselves just to have a cigarette,” said one resident who was in a wheelchair.
“Bob” is a physical therapist for clients at the Bremerton Health and Rehabilitation Center. He risked his job to share with us his displeasure with the new no-smoking rules imposed on clients.
“I didn't believe it at first. I thought they were joking, but it was true. You're asking people who are already at risk for a fall, whose mobility is impaired, to go through the obstacle of walking hundreds of feet on unleveled terrain, over a curb, then across a real business street?”
We obtained an internal memo that states residents can no longer smoke on nursing home property. But why not?
Washington's law allows smoking in places like this as long as the cigarettes and ashes stay outside 25 feet from the door. The uncovered, designated cement smoking seat is a treacherous one block walk from the center's front door.
Resident David Olguin says that’s too far and too treacherous a journey for most.
“They go pretty slow on that hill. The cars go pretty fast. One of them is going to get run over,” Olguin said.
Administrators here were camera shy, but told us disabled residents didn't have to cross the street; it was just a suggestion. They admit, however, they want residents to quit smoking and won't permit the bad habit on nursing home property any longer.
Our videotape proves that owners of the nursing home don't have any trouble asking residents, already in frail health, to stand in the rain and cold weather to light up.
Pike complains that the new smoking ban has gone too far saying, “This is my home, ya know. Why do we have to go across the road to smoke? This is my home!”
Just to check on any other potential "quality of care" issues here, KIRO Team 7 Investigators pulled the Bremerton Health and Rehabilitation Center's February health inspection report. It's 58 pages filled with 14 separate code violations, many of them dealing with staff being inattentive to residents’ safety and welfare. Inspectors tell us if they'd have seen what we saw, they'd have tacked on a few more violations.
The week following our last visit, the center faxed us this statement. Although defending its right to ban smoking, the agency adds. "Based on recent concerns, we are looking into the creation of a smoking area with seating on the edge of our property to better accommodate residents."
Several lawmakers in Olympia tell KIRO Team 7 Investigators they believe the smoking ban should not apply to assisted living centers. House Bill 3130 reflects that, but the legislation is currently "on-hold."
See, they're living their life, not yours.
But NOOOooooooo, we can't have that now, can we?
And if the tobacco junkies didn't poison the air around them, that everyone else has to breath, I wouldn't give a damn. But NOOOoooooo, they insist on spewing their filth and waste. Can't have them just smoking at home, now can we?
My wife has worked at a nursing home. They have already stated that no matter what laws are passed there is one thing lawmakers cannot change.
A nursing home is exactly that.....their HOME!
While the nursing home is forcing employees to exit the property to have a cig, the residents have a designated smoking area. They get it, the gov't cannot dictate at home!
Ideally we'll die together from a lightning strike.
Ok. Name ONE thing in life that you enjoy that you aren't "hooked" on? That word covers a LOT of activities.
Thousands are "hooked" on running 10 miles a day. Thousands are "hooked" on working out at the gym every day. Thousands are "hooked" when it comes to working on cars.
What is the difference? People get "hooked" on things we enjoy in this life. No harm in that. No harm at all!
I chewed when I went to see a St Louis Rams game versus the 49ers a couple years ago. The new Rams facility was smoke free.
Until halftime at least that is. After the halftime show there was so much smoke in the dome that my eyes were watering! Needless to say ( for this reason along with 7 dollar beers and 5 dollar hot dogs) I have not been back.
I feel the same way.
So! When you go out and leave the confines of your own home, you believe that the world should rotate on YOUR ass and no one else's! How sweet!
We don't LIVE in PERFECT!
If smokers don't like it they can quit or move.
If nonsmokers don't like it they can start or move.
If you don't want a choice then you are just trying to enforce YOUR wishes on someone else.
A nursing home is exactly that.....their HOME!
While the nursing home is forcing employees to exit the property to have a cig, the residents have a designated smoking area. They get it, the gov't cannot dictate at home!
That's why I can't understand how some nursing homes are allowed to get away with this. Forcing the aged, frail and sick elders outside to smoke. This is totally over the top.
More from Maine:
Hospitals moving to bar psychiatric patients from smoking/Don't go nuts in Maine
''Our first concern is about health and about patients, and it's high time we made the statement that smoking is not OK in a health care environment,'' Dr. Girard Robinson said.
More cruel and inhumane treatment by Maine's Health Care Facilities.
Hehe! I sure know what you mean!
I offer that there are two possible ways forward. One is that lawyers will be enriched by the coming lawsuits (most likely class action like the ones against tobacco).
OR
Anyplace commercial can set up a smoking area that is filtered having the filtered air exit to the outside of the building. Tulsa innternational airport had a great smoking room. I offer that designated smoking areas will solve all the drama happeneing today in regards to this issue.
Elderly folks have lived a long life and it is the height of disrespect to dictate to them how they should live their last months and years. Truly it is a new low for this nation.
The anti's are working to ban smoking in all VET Clubs as well. The Vets fought to keep us free, now the putrid anti's in this Country want to take away that right as well!
LOL
Makes swapping chew sound bad...
All I can do is shake my head at the antics of people that do not see the harm they commit in the name of good.
I think that many liberal tendencies are good hearted in nature and alot really do mean well. The problem is that they refuse to set their actions on a scale and check the balance of what they are doing as to the actual results of what they are doing. People that do so and act upon those results are what I call conservative.
Conserve the freedom by conserving the choice.
Reminds me a few years back,my brother, got kicked out of a hospital the same way. He was ready to go home anyway.
I don't think anyone has the right to order people not to smoke, when that person is willing to go outside or to a designated area. It is totally insane. Brainwashing is a very powerful tool.
The anti-smoking nutjobs in Washington State are heinously self-righteous. If some seniors die while trying to shuffle out for a smoke, they'll just say "well they were killing themselves with cigarettes anyway!"
Same with them forcing smoking bans on private businesses and a lot of those businesses close. The anti's can care less about this. As long as they get their way and ban smoking, they could care less about the human element.
Well, only took until post 19.
And if the tobacco junkies didn't poison the air around them, that everyone else has to breath, I wouldn't give a damn. But NOOOoooooo, they insist on spewing their filth and waste. Can't have them just smoking at home, now can we?
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