Health facilities: smoking.

Existing law establishes various programs for the prevention of disease and the promotion of health to be administered by the State Department of Public Health, including, but not limited to, a program for the licensing and regulation of health facilities including general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and nursing facilities. A violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. Existing law, with certain exceptions, prohibits smoking in patient care areas, waiting rooms, and visiting rooms of specified health facilities. A violation of these provisions is an infraction. Existing law generally prohibits smoking in the workplace. This bill would repeal the above described prohibition against smoking in specified areas of specified health facilities, and would instead prohibit smoking in all areas of a general acute care hospital and throughout the entire hospital campus, as specified. The bill would require general acute care hospitals to post specified signs and train employees on the smoking policy. The bill would provide that the smoking prohibition does not prevent smoking on a hospital campus by a patient if the treating physician determines that the patient's treatment will be substantially impaired by the denial to the patient of the use of tobacco and the physician enters a written order permitting the use of tobacco by that patient. The bill would also specify that violation of these provisions does not constitute either a misdemeanor or an infraction.