Journal of Medicine - A study of smokers admitted to a large urban teaching hospital in Massachusetts found that 18.4 percent reported smoking during their hospitalization, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. The Joint Commission requires accredited U.S. hospitals to have a policy prohibiting smoking in hospital buildings, but the requirement does not extend to the hospital campus. In most hospitals where a campus-wide smoking ban is not in place, hospitalized smokers can go outside the hospital to smoke, according to the study background.

Susan Regan, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and colleagues conducted an observational study of 5,399 smokers visited by a tobacco counselor while hospitalized at the facility from May 2007 through April 2010. Smoking is banned at Massachusetts General Hospital in all indoor areas and on the outdoor campus except in two outdoor shelters, which patients may use.

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