Baptist Health jobs not open to smokers

Smokers seeking a career at Baptist Health System might need to keep looking.

Baptist is the first major health system in San Antonio to deny employment to candidates if they test positive for nicotine as part of the system's new hiring policy.

Sarah Spinharney, vice president of human resources at Baptist, said the 3-month-old policy is a natural extension of the system's mission to create a healthier San Antonio.

“We wanted to make sure we were culturally ready,” Spinharney said.

She said adopting the new policy was an evolutionary process starting with smoke-free campuses and cessation classes for current employees before moving to a full-on hiring policy.

Karen May, director of internal communications at Baptist, said there seems to be a trend to create a better environment and that adopting a nicotine-free hiring policy is the system's way of developing a healthier workplace for its 7,000 employees.

A growing number of hospitals and health care institutions have adopted the policies to promote wellness, improve productivity and rein in rising health care costs. But critics say they discriminate and could lead to punitive actions against other personal habits and vices.

“We think this is an invasion of privacy and really overreaching,” said Dotty Griffith, public education director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas. “At what point do you give up your rights and autonomy? Will they not employ those who ride motorcycles and drink alcohol?”

Spinharney said critics of the hiring policy “may not match up with (the system's) values and where (it) wants to go with a healthier community.”

The hiring guidelines at Baptist are straightforward. Applicants who test positive for tobacco use will not be hired. But current employees are exempt.

Baptist's website warns job seekers that it is a nicotine-free employer. Once applicants are offered a position, they have 70 hours to complete a nicotine urine analysis test as part of the employer's drug test. A job offer will be withdrawn if an applicant tests positive for nicotine, but applicants can reapply after 90 days.

Smoking cessation classes are free and offered only to current employees, Spinharney said.

She said that since the policy's adoption, three or four applicants were turned away after testing positive for nicotine. They might have applied before the policy took effect Aug. 15, but were still in the application system, she said.

University Health System and Methodist Health System have adopted tobacco-free campuses, but neither have a tobacco-free hiring policy.

How many businesses have such policies is difficult to determine because no group or agency is tracking them.

In Houston, Methodist Hospital System this month announced that it will implement a tobacco-free hiring policy Jan. 1, joining the Texas Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, which have had similar policies since last year and 2010, respectively.

Cleveland Clinic in Ohio was the first academic medical center to implement a policy, in 2007. The clinic has received numerous inquiries over the past couple of years about its policy, a clinic spokeswoman said.

Lewis Maltby, president of the National Worker Rights Institute, estimates that 4 percent of businesses had such policies in the 1980s and early 1990s. The trend slowed, then regained steam in the past couple of years in the health care and casino industries, he said.

Baylor Healthcare System in Dallas, which sought input from the Cleveland Clinic, implemented its policy in January. Becky Hall, vice president of health and wellness, said the policy was a natural progression. In 2007, the system's hospitals became smoke-free and began offering employees cessation programs, Hall said.

The primary reason for the policy “is to live by what we actually say,” she said. The system has heart disease and cancer centers, and smoking contributes to those illnesses, she said.

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and a major contributor to many chronic diseases in the United States. Smoking causes 443,000 deaths each year, and the diseases caused by cigarette smoking result in $96 billion in health care costs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Marc Boom, president and CEO of Methodist Hospital System in Houston, said cost was a factor in the system's decision. Insurance premiums are higher for smokers than nonsmokers, and all employees have shared the burden, he said.

Whether Baylor has experienced any insurance savings is too early to tell, but Hall assumes it will. Memorial Hermann and Texas Medical Center representatives could not be reached for comment.

Michael Siegel, a public health professor at Boston University, says if cost is a real issue, employers should get rid of current employees who smoke. He says the policies are simply unethical and a value judgment against smoking.

“It's a form of employment discrimination,” Siegel said. “People need to recognize that. They're making a hiring decision based on a group someone belongs to, not his or her qualifications for the job.”

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have statutes that ban employment discrimination against smokers, but Texas is one of the 21 states that do not.