The Global Network for Tobacco Free Healthcare Services (GNTH) announced the list of “2024 International Tobacco-Free Hospital Golden Awards” winners in November this year (2024). A total of 15 hospitals worldwide received the award, with all eight hospitals nominated by Taiwan to participate in the competition recognized with the Golden Awards. The hospitals have demonstrated excellent results in smoking cessation by improving the quality of smoking cessation services, strengthening motivation to quit smoking, and promoting a smoke-free environment through innovative measures such as multimedia interaction and shared decision-making between doctors and patients.

43 Smoke-free Hospitals in Taiwan Have Received the International Golden Awards to Date

The GNTH was established in 1999 and has since garnered enthusiastic participation from over 1,400 member institutions (medical facilities) spanning 14 countries. Taiwan applied for membership in 2011, establishing the first network in the Asia-Pacific region. Presently, Taiwan proudly counts 218 hospitals as members, with 43 hospitals having previously received the prestigious international gold award. This year's award-winning hospitals include Kaohsiung Municipal Min-Sheng Hospital, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Cathay General Hospital, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei Municipal Gan-Dau Hospital, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, and National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch.

Distinctive Smoking Cessation Services with Remarkable Achievements

The HPA encourages hospitals each year to conduct self-assessments based on GNTH's 8 Global Standards (Governance and Commitment, Communication, Education and Training, Identification/Diagnosis and Tobacco Cessation Support, Tobacco-Free Environment, Healthy Workplace, Community Engagement, Monitoring and Evaluation), and also actively engaging in the international golden award certification. The recognized features and highlights of the eight awarded hospitals this year (2024) are as follows:

1. Taipei Municipal Gan-Dau Hospital: Creative use of the multimedia interactive functions of the hospital's self-service payment kiosks to conduct online prize-winning quizzes, including the broadcast of animated short films to explain the hazards of tobacco products, strengthen the spread of the smoking cessation messaging, and establish a Gan-Dau Hospital Smoking Cessation Line@group to interact with patients.
2. Taipei Veterans General Hospital: Actively identify outpatients and inpatients who smoke, introduce SDM and social media app @SmartHelper to provide comprehensive support for smoking cessation. Full-time dedicated inspectors together with 17 surveillance technology hotspot broadcasting and a smoking hazard reporting community to create a healthy and reassuring healing space.
3. Cathay General Hospital: A chronic disease smoking cessation service network has been established to promote shared decision-making (SDM) between doctors and patients. One-on-one health education consultations are provided by chronic disease case managers to strengthen the motivation to quit smoking. The hospital also actively shares its experiences in tobacco control with the international community to safeguard people's health.
4. Mackay Memorial Hospital: The hospital regularly organizes “Mackay Smoking Cessation Week” and community tobacco harm prevention activities, improves the quality of smoking cessation services through a smoking cessation case management system, sets up smoking cessation reminder bells in the smoking area, set up a smoking cessation bell, establish an incentive mechanism to encourage employees to refer smoking cessation services, and integrate medical staff from various departments to participate in smoking cessation service training and certification.
5. National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch: Through illustrated explanations, the hospital helps patients choose the right smoking cessation medication. They actively track cases and use a successful smoking cessation bulletin board and success cards to overcome difficulties in the smoking cessation process and inspire determination to persevere in the smoking cessation journey.
6. Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital: Smoking cessation shared decision-making (SDM) was introduced, and a smoking cessation SDM tool was built into the medical order system. For inpatients with a smoking history, the SDM tool was used to make a smoking cessation decision that suits them, improving motivation and increasing the chance of success.
7. Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital: The hospital has created an intuitive system for identifying smoking status, implemented referral services, integrated relevant resources to organize cross-team collaboration, innovatively created a “smoke-free hospital ecosystem”, and deployed multi-disciplinary and multi-level smoking cessation interventions to create high-efficiency smoking treatment effects and move towards the goal of a smoke-free lifestyle.
8. Kaohsiung Municipal Min-Sheng Hospital: The hospital deploys a variety of tools to deliver smoking cessation and health education information, including audio-visual media and promotional activities in conjunction with festivals. Shared decision-making (SDM) between doctors and patients was introduced to improve the effectiveness of smoking cessation health education. Smoking cessation health education is organized in the community, workplace and schools to promote knowledge of smoking cessation and health.

International Exchange of Tobacco-Free Hospitals Enhances Taiwan’s Global Visibility

GNTH held the “GNTH Global Network Conference & Gold Forum 2024” on November 6, 2024, and organized the topic “The Gold Standard of Healthcare: Representatives from Various Networks Showcasing Their Models for Promoting Smoke-Free Organizations.” Representatives from six networks delivered keynote presentations, and in Taiwan, Director General Chao-Chun Wu of the Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, shared Taiwan's tobacco harm prevention policies and results. Eight award-winning hospitals in Taiwan were also invited to attend the award ceremony and share their experiences in promoting smoke-free hospitals, highlighting the achievements of smoke-free hospitals in our country.

Extended Reading:

[List of 218 GNTH members in Taiwan]

https://www.hpa.gov.tw/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeid=589&pid=16137

[Smoke-Free Hospitals]

https://www.hpa.gov.tw/Pages/List.aspx?nodeid=182