If you want to work for Baptist Health Care and Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola, you'll have to give up smoking.
Beginning Jan. 1, the hospital will expand its smoking policy. The health care system's campuses are already smoke-free, with the use of tobacco products prohibited by employees, patients and visitors.
The Pensacola News Journal reports the decision by Baptist and Sacred Heart follows a national trend to lower the cost of employee health insurance programs and to promote healthy lifestyles.
The hospitals will include nicotine on pre-employment drug screening tests. They'll also require an affidavit affirming that the prospective employee does not use alcohol.
The newspaper reports businesses, including Gulf Power Co., already have a smoke-free policy in place.
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