Geraldton District Hospital endeavours to ensure the comfort and safety of staff, patients/residents, physicians, volunteers and visitors by encouraging a fragrance-free environment.  Given that chemically sensitive individuals may react to different products with widely varying degrees of severity, it is very difficult to ensure a consistently comfortable and accommodating environment under every conceivable set of circumstances.  Scents are especially magnified indoors.  It is the general consensus of the Joint Occupational Health & Safety Committee and the management of the Geraldton District Hospital to minimize exposure to chemicals/fragrances within the facility.

Policy

All Hospital employees and affiliates, both in patient and non-patient care areas will not wear scented personal products.  The Geraldton District Hospital will endeavour to purchase and utilize fragrance-free patient care products.

Process
Patients/residents will be encouraged not to wear fragrances.

Staff, patients/residents, physicians, volunteers or visitors who are wearing a scented product that is causing distress to another person will be requested to remove the scent immediately.

Should the person refuse to comply with the Hospital policy, he/she will be referred to the immediate supervisor for resolution.

Smoking is not allowed in the Hospital, including the John Owen Evans Residence, the Northern Horizon Health Centre and the Bessie Newman Residence.

Residents, patients, staff, physicians, volunteers and visitors are only allowed to smoke outside the building, no closer than 9 meters of any Hospital entrance and any entrance to the Northern Horizon Health Centre and the Bessie Newman Residence.

For the protection of staff, staff are not allowed to accompany a resident or patient, should the resident or patient choose to smoke outside.

The maintenance staff will ensure that signs are posted at the entrances and that butt disposal units are appropriately located at the main, emergency and staff entrances.

Prior to admission to the John Owen Evans Residence, residents and their families will be informed of the Hospital smoking policy.  Residents and patients will also be able to access the smoking cessation programs.  These programs will be made available in partnership with other agencies such as the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.