The Global Network for Tobacco Free Healthcare Services (GNTH) announced the winners of 2022 International Golden Award in October 2022. A total of 16 hospitals received International Golden Award, and all of the seven hospitals recommended by the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) to participate in the certification won the award. The award-winning hospitals are Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chiayi Christian Hospital, MacKay Memorial Hospital Tamsui Branch, Hsinchu Cathay General Hospital, Ten-Chan General Hospital, Chi Mei Hospital Liouying, Chi Mei Medical Center, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital. Among them, Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chiayi Christian Hospital has the honor of receiving this award for the second time.

        Established in 1999, GNTH has seen the participation of 1,400 members (medical institutes) from 14 countries around the globe. Taiwan joined the GNTH  in 2011 and established the first network in the Asia Pacific region. To date, 215 hospitals in Taiwan have become members, and 35 hospitals have received the International Golden Award.

Providing characteristic and effective cessation services 
       HPA encourages hospitals to perform self-audit according to GNTH standards every year and actively participates in the international GOLD Forum certification.
       This year (2022) a total of seven hospitals from Taiwan win the International Golden Award. The characteristics and highlights of their practice are as follows:
1.Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chiayi Christian Hospital: With cross-team cooperation to create a tobacco-free environment, its team provides health knowledge in smoking hazard prevention to adolescents, pregnant women, and chronic disease patients.
2.MacKay Memorial Hospital Tamsui Branch: AI warning buzzers for ignition detection are installed to monitor and curb smoking; in coordination with a broadcasting system, it effectively keep smokers at bay and encourage them to quit smoking.
3.Hsinchu Cathay General Hospital: No-smoking signs and promotional slogans are hung in visible areas, and health education videos of smoking cessation are broadcast on the TV to make the overall environment more tobacco-free friendly.
4.Ten-Chan General Hospital: The employees are incentivized to improve their knowledge of tobacco hazard prevention and control, and the medical staff are encouraged to participate in education and training on smoking cessation services. The hospital implements a tobacco-free policy throughout its premises.
5.Chi Mei Hospital Liouying: A newly-developed alarming system combined with the remote monitoring function helped effectively reduce the number of smoking hotspots.
6.Chi Mei Medical Center: They developed an integrated cross-team healthcare system, which provides cross-specialties smoking cessation services and individualized care for each patient.
7.Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital: With a community-based approach, it provides smoking cessation services combining the resources of geriatrics, critical care, and chronic disease care to fulfill the need of local neighborhoods.

Participation in the Global Network to enlarge international visibility
       GNTH held the GLOBAL NETWORK CONFERENCE plus GOLD Forum event on October 19th, 2022, and 7 award-winning hospitals in Taiwan were invited to accept the award online and share their experience in promoting tobacco-free hospitals. Dr. Lin, Chi-Wei (Taiwan Network Director) and Dr. Hung, Wei-Chieh from the Division of Family Medicine of E-Da Hospital were invited to share the use of the LINE app (Taichung City Smoking Cessation System Intelligence Customer Service LINE@) and smoking cessation information system. They also talk about their experience in providing intelligent smoking cessation customer service and case management. This event allows Taiwan to share its achievements in tobacco-free hospitals with other members.