Healthy hospitals are a cornerstone of a healthy community. As one of the largest industries in the state, hospitals can affect the health behaviors of thousands of employees, in addition to providing healthcare to patients. For more on why we focus on tobacco, nutrition, and physical activity, check out our Health Issues page. 

NC Prevention Partners is helping hospitals statewide establish quit-tobacco systems and healthy food policies for employees, patients, and visitors. In 2006, The Duke Endowment funded NCPP, in a partnership with the NC Hospital Association, to help NC hospitals go 100% tobacco-free. In 2008, we expanded this work to include nutrition policy. This year, we began working with select hospitals to promote comprehensive cessation systems.

Already, NC hospitals are taking amazing steps to improve the health of their communities:

• Quit-Tobacco: NCPP has developed a comprehensive approach to tobacco cessation, so that every patient, visitor, and employee has the best chance to quit tobacco successfully. NCPP is currently challenging hospitals to have the most patients referred to the NC Quitline via fax.
   
• Tobacco-Free: One way to encourage people to quit using tobacco is to make hospital worksites 100% tobacco-free campus wide. As of July 6, 2009, ALL acute care hospitals in North Carolina have a 100% tobacco-free campus wide policy!
   
• Healthy Food: Nearly half of NC hospitals have adopted NCPP's Nutrition Criteria and implemented the five principles of a Healthy Food Environment, making healthy foods the easy and affordable choice. Track how hospitals are doing in implementing a Red Apple Healthy Food Environment on our map.

NCPP has the tools to help your hospital get started! Our funding from The Duke Endowment allows us to offer every NC hospital free access to our WorkHealthy Assessment.  The Assessment is an easy-to-use, online tool that evaluates your hospital's wellness policies and gives you tailored resources to better support employees, visitors, and patients to be healthy.

To find out how your hospital can get involved, contact Melva Fager Okun concerning the Quit-Tobacco component and Anne Thornhill about Healthy Food.