The federal government will withhold money to hospitals who don't follow the guidelines for certain things like pneumonia. congestive heart failure, etc.
Here's from Wikipedia: "Health professionals may follow the "five As" with every smoking patient they come in contact with:
1. Ask about smoking
2. Advise quitting
3. Assess current willingness to quit
4. Assist in the quit attempt
5. Arrange timely follow-up"
Now I understand why I was harrassed to no end the last time I was in the hospital.
I was admitted because of a blood sugar issue, not a "smoking related" issue. From the time I got in there until I left the nurses insisted I NEEDED a patch because I wouldn't be able to smoke. I didn't want to sdmoke, I just wanted to get out of there.
The one that woke me up at 6am really took the cake. I had finally been able to actually get more than an hour's sleep at that point and she woke me up to offer me a patch. That was the ONLY reason she woke me. I blew a gasket at her. And told her point blank that the only time I had even thought of smoking a cigarette in the 18 hours I had been there was when one of them claimed I NEEDED a patch. My language was definitely not ladylike at that point and I offered no apologies for it, in fact I told her point blank I would not apologize for my language.
When she came in later, I also put the Doctor in her place over it. Doc told me the nurse complained about my behavior and my attitude was too damned bad about her. Me being a smoker had no bearing upon why I was there and since I was paying for being there I should not be harrassed about something unrelated to me being there. It was so very obvious that it was killing that doctor to have to agree that I was right and the nurses (and hospital policy) was wrong.
That was 18 months ago, I was 46 and all I needed to do was change my diet slightly. Every doctor I had to deal with over that incident actually had to choke when making the admission that me being a smoker had absolutely NO bearing on what was wrong. They have all been so brainwashed into the idea that all smokers are unhealthy they couldn't equate what I had done the day before with someone that smokes. I had spent the better part of the day harvesting a crop of habanero peppers, and the rest of the day and evening prepping them to make jelly.
According to the propaganda, a smoker can't do any physical labor.