Well, there is no reason why that nursing home can't continue to have a lounge or day room for these people to smoke in. Why on earth are they kicked outside to begin with!
I bet it's been a very long time since anyone's been allowed to smoke indoors at a nursing home. I've volunteered doing pet visits at a LOT of them and have never seen smoking inside at any of them.
If you want to know the functional "why" relating to this article it's because the new WA state law does not allow any smoking inside any workplace. Smoking would be banned under the law because people work there. The policy of this nursing home moving them off property goes ~way~ beyond that.
If you want to talk about unfair and ridiculous, people in Hospice and Home Care are now not allowed to smoke at home under the law because of visiting nursing and care staff. The truth is, many of those staff smoke themselves, or at least, a high enough percentage that staff who would not mind the patient smoking could easily be found.