Callaway County Ambulance Board decided to look into providing incentives for employees to stop smoking Tuesday night rather than an across-the-board ban as proposed member Chuck Baker proposed during last month's regular meeting.
During his report, Medical Director James Stevermer addressed the smoking debate at the end of his report by noting, "I would strongly encourage you to do something with encouraging smoking cessation."
Director Charles Anderson later started off the board discussion of the issue by noting he did not think a smoking ban was "overall in the district's best interest."
"I think it's going to add stress and potentially create difficulty," Anderson said. "I also think even if you ban it completely, they're going to find opportunities to smoke."
Union President Josh Lloyd agreed that a smoking ban would have a negative impact on district morale.
"Callaway Ambulance as a whole works very, very hard to be a team," Lloyd said. "I feel like if you try to ban it, that would split."
Pointing out that employees "spend a quarter of our life here," he said he also agreed a blanket ban would add "a whole lot of stress."
Lengthy discussion between board members centered on those points as well as the idea that it would be hard enforce.
After listening to that discussion, Baker said he was not going to back down from his original position.
"I think at the very minimum, we need to explore some options to help the smokers become non-smokers," Baker said.
Board member Norman Forman pointed out that when he was working with the ambulance service in Macon the service there put the focus not just on tobacco, but also on other health issues such as weight, diabetes and cholesterol. He said they offered incentives to employees for making healthy lifestyle choices - not smoking, losing weight, having a good physical.
"I think we need to do everything we can to encourage our employees to be healthy," Forman said. "It doesn't have to be a heavy-handed process. The message we want to convey is we're not trying to be tyrants, we just want them to take care of themselves so they can be district employees for a long, long time."
Several other board members also spoke in favor of offering some sort of wellness benefit or incentive program, with suggestions of some sort of bonus for employees who don't smoke or making employees who do smoke pay a greater portion of their health insurance premium.
Assistant Director Linda Ellis said she felt such an approach may go over better with district employees.
"At least then it makes it their choice," Ellis said.
Anderson said he would look into options for developing a wellness benefit program.