Hospital campus to go smoke-free

The hospital is scheduled to implement a new smoke-free campus policy at the start of the new year.

Wrangell Medical Center administrators and key staff signed the new policy on October 24, to take effect on January 1. Currently the hospital sports designated smoking areas for staff, patients and visitors, one of the few hospitals in the state still to do so, reckons Scott Glaze, WMC compliance and risk manager. Its health provision counterpart Alaska Island Community Services has had such a policy in place since February 2015.

The new policy would require people on hospital property or using...