Friday, February 17, 2006

Smokers Deemed Ineligible to Pursue Jobs in Health Care Field at Truman Medical Centers

According to a local FOX-News affiliate in Kansas City, smokers are no longer eligible for employment at the city's Truman Medical Centers.

According to the article: "If you smoke, you won't get a job at Truman Medical Centers. The hospital system will not hire any more tobacco users. The CEO says since they're in the health care business, they want to make a strong statement and set the example that smoking is a preventable health hazard."

The Rest of the Story

This is very solid and logical reasoning, don't you think?. I just have one suggestion for the Truman Medical Centers. If they are really interested in making a strong statement and setting the example about what preventable health hazards are, then they should also stop hiring obese people. Since they're in the health care business, don't they feel they should set an example regarding one of the nation's most important preventable health hazards - obesity?

And why stop there? Lack of physical activity is also an important preventable health hazard. So is a crappy diet. And so is unsafe sexual activity. Aren't these all unhealthy behaviors that Truman Medical Centers should make a strong statement about and for which they should set the example that these, in addition to smoking, are important preventable health hazards?

If you initiate an application to the Truman Medical Centers, you will be asked whether or not you use tobacco products. Apparently, if you say "yes," the application process is terminated.

This is a real shame. For one, there are a large number of smokers who are extremely highly qualified for jobs in the health care field. During my experience as a medical student, intern, resident, and part-time physician, I have worked with hundreds of other health care practitioners. And some of the very best practitioners I have been fortunate enough, and privileged enough to work with have been smokers.

And the patients who were cared for by these practitioners, who happened to smoke or use smokeless tobacco products, were also extremely fortunate and privileged.

And it seems a shame to disqualify this large segment of health care practitioners from the field solely because of a behavior they engage in within the privacy of their homes (this policy has nothing to do with smoking on-the-job, which is obviously banned at most medical centers). And that behavior is certainly not a bona fide job requirement due to its direct impact on job performance, at least for most medical center positions.

I wouldn't argue that perhaps a smoker might not be the best choice as a smoking cessation counselor, but for most other general health care positions, smokers can be, and many are, highly qualified. Many are more qualified than any nonsmoking applicants.

So let's get this straight. If I am a smoker, I cannot apply for the following position as a Coding Quality Specialist at Truman Medical Centers:

"In this position you will be responsible for conducting coding audits in any service; preparing coding quality reports for the Corporate HIM Coding Management team; maintaining accurate, detailed and consistent documentation of coding audit activity reporting and action; as well as staying abreast of current developments in coding classification."

Now how does the fact that I chew some Skoal every now and then or smoke off-the-job affect my ability to conduct coding audits, prepare quality reports, maintain documentation, and stay abreast of current developments? I just don't get it.

Or how about this one - a position as a Health Information Management Supervisor:

"Supervises staff and manages workflow in the Medical Record chart completion
process. Monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of services in chart completion."

Does smoking off-the-job affect your ability to supervise staff and manage workflow and to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of services? Hardly.

While the official job requirements for this position read:

"High School Diploma or GED required; associate or bachelor degree in health related field. Developed knowledge of Medical terminology. Previous management/supervisory experience required; experience with computer systems and applications. Registered Health Information Technologist (RHIT) or Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) or equivalent preferred. Excellent communication, verbal, written and listening skills; experience in medical record function preferred; available to participate in departmental on-call reachable by beeper 24 hours/day,"

they actually read:

"High School Diploma or GED required; associate or bachelor degree in health related field. Developed knowledge of Medical terminology. Previous management/supervisory experience required; experience with computer systems and applications. Registered Health Information Technologist (RHIT) or Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) or equivalent preferred. Excellent communication, verbal, written and listening skills; experience in medical record function preferred; available to participate in departmental on-call reachable by beeper 24 hours/day. Must not smoke or use smokeless tobacco in the privacy of your own home."

And if Truman Medical Centers were sincere about wanting to set a good example for preventable health hazards, then the job requirements should read:

"High School Diploma or GED required; associate or bachelor degree in health related field. Developed knowledge of Medical terminology. Previous management/supervisory experience required; experience with computer systems and applications. Registered Health Information Technologist (RHIT) or Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) or equivalent preferred. Excellent communication, verbal, written and listening skills; experience in medical record function preferred; available to participate in departmental on-call reachable by beeper 24 hours/day. Must not smoke or use smokeless tobacco in the privacy of your own home. Must have a body mass index of no more than 30.0. Must eat no more than 65 grams of fat per day. Must exercise for at least 30 minutes no less than twice per week. Must not engage in unsafe sexual activity. No tater tot eaters please. Other than this, we are an Equal Opportunity Employer."

What Truman Medical Centers is really saying is that smokers are undeserving of a career in the health field, simply because of a behavior that most started doing and became addicted to when they were 15, 16, or 17-years old.

I find that attitude to be most unbecoming of a Medical Center, which I had thought was supposed to have compassion and understanding for smokers, who make up a large proportion of its patients.

I see no reason why smokers should not be eligible for jobs in the health care field, or any other field, for that matter (maybe with the exception of smoking cessation counseling or working for an anti-smoking organization).

The rest of the story is that, plain and simple, bigotry is taking the disguise of people or businesses concerned about public health. And that's scary, because I shudder to think about what else these folks might be "concerned" about?

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