The newly defined UW Hospital campus, which includes multiple health buildings surrounding UW Hospital and Clinics, will be entirely smoke-free beginning April 2.
Vice Chancellor for Administration Darrell Bazzell said the change was made to meet hospital reaccreditation rules that require hospitals to have a smoke-free campus,"" which created a challenge for the university.
""Oftentimes when accreditation agencies are dealing with hospitals, it's just a freestanding hospital - they aren't in the middle of a college campus,"" Bazzell said.
Bazzell said hospital administration met with deans of surrounding health sciences schools who said they wanted to be part of the hospital's campus.
In addition to the hospital and clinics, the change will affect the American Family Children's Hospital, the School of Medicine and Public Health, the School of Nursing, the School of Pharmacy in Rennebohm Hall, the Carbone Cancer Center and the Waisman Center.
The new policy will cover all outdoor hospital campus grounds - an expansion of the current policy that prohibits smoking in all UW-Madison buildings and restricts smoking to areas 25 feet away from exits and entrances.
Eric West, a medical communications specialist and current smoker, said he thinks the ban will also affect his building, an off-site administrative location leased from the state.
West said if it does, he would likely change his smoking habits.
""If I was just on a 15-minute break, I may be more inclined to not have a cigarette until my lunch break when I can safely drive off the premises and have a cigarette without breaking any rules.""
Bazzell said the policy is not meant to be disciplinary.
""What we're not going to do is start sending the smoking police out.
Obviously, we'd like to see compliance with the new policy, but our intention is not to send lots of police officers or security out to monitor the implementation of the policy.""
""It's going to be a process, it's going to take awhile for people to get used to this, especially if they're coming from out of town,"" said Lisa Brunette, UW Hospital and Clinics media relations director.
Brunette said Meriter Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital in Madison will also be completely smoke-free within the next week to avoid confusing patients who split time between hospitals for medical care.
""We wanted to try to give a consistent message to the community,"" she said.
