The sales pitch: Receive a $50 gift card. Get a free weight-loss consultation with a registered dietitian. Take advantage of free counseling and below-cost discounts.

The catch: Quit smoking.

On Friday, Penrose-St. Francis Health System will join a growing list of hospitals that have gone or are going tobacco-free. To ease the pain, the Colorado Springs hospital system is providing several incentives for people who want to quit.

The new anti-tobacco policy, similar to a policy that went into effect Jan. 1. at Memorial Health System, means no smoking or using smokeless tobacco anywhere on Penrose properties, even sidewalks. Employees who leave work to light up and come back stinking of smoke could be disciplined.

Nine Denver-area hospitals plan to go tobacco-free on Friday as part of a coordinated effort. About 600 hospitals nationally have gone tobacco-free, said Kristine Barrett, Health Incentive Improvement Program coordinator for Penrose-St. Francis.

"We don't want to take people's freedom away from them, but we want to promote health, and that's what this is all about," said Gary Morse, vice president of human resources for Penrose-St. Francis.

Even so, administrators acknowledge that quitting isn't easy. After all, many of the smokers on staff have been undeterred by treating patients with smoking-related diseases.

That may help explain the benefits being offered to employees in conjunction with the policy: The gift card comes after six months of kicking the habit, and the dietitian is offered to help smokers avoid the potential weight gain. Employees can get the smoking-cessation prescription drug Chantix for $40, compared with $120 at the pharmacy, and counseling on how to cope with cravings.

Morse said the hospital is also looking at ways to help people find alternatives to the workplace ritual of congregating outside for a smoke.

"People don't think about the fact that friendships are formed around smoking," Morse said.

The consequences of lighting up during the workday can be severe for employees. The policy includes a "three strike" rule that could ultimately result in termination for people who refuse to quit smoking at the hospital or who come back from lunch reeking of smoke.

Chris Valentine, Memorial Health System spokesman and a member of the hospital's Tobacco Free Committee, said no one has been fired over the tobacco policy, and its implementation has gone smoothly. Several employees, some of them smokers for 20 years, quit because of the policy. Memorial offered smokingcessation classes, he said, but prescriptions for Chantix, for the price of a co-pay, have proven far more popular.

Nathan Sadorus, 28, an employee in Penrose Community Hospital's radiology department, quit smoking six months ago in part because he knew a tobacco policy was coming. He funneled his energy into the gym, he said, and is now taking the lead in helping his co-workers stop. Having seen patients suffering from emphysema and other lung diseases, and with two young children, he said the benefits have far outweighed the cravings.

The new policy at Penrose comes two years after Colorado lawmakers passed a ban outlawing smoking indoors, and it precedes the opening of the new St. Francis Medical Center on Aug. 16.

While employees can rack up the bennies, there's no such offering for patients and visitors, but they, too, are expected to comply. Employees at Penrose have undergone training of what to tell visitors about the ban's intent to promote better health, and the hospital has ordered some 250 "quit kits." The rollout also includes 1,000 table-top promotional materials, 5,000 informational fliers, and several hundred lollipops and mints.

One thing smokers won't get, according to Morse, is an apology: "This is a health care facility. This is about health."

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Contact the writer: 636-0198 or brian.newsome@gazette.com