Smoking in the Hospital

To the Editor: Recently, an elderly patient came to our hospital's emergency room because of acute worsening of chronic obstructive lung disease. She had dyspnea, and the physicians who evaluated her thought that she would benefit from admission to the hospital. The patient had given up cigarette smoking several years before because of its effect on her lung disease. However, on the night she required admission, the only beds available in our hospital were in “smoking” rooms. There were no “nonsmoking” hospital rooms available. The patient refused admission and went to another hospital. Our hospital is one of many throughout.