BANGOR – Patients and employees in Bangor’s two general hospitals will no longer be able to take a drag on a cigarette anywhere on the grounds after New Year’s.

Both St. Joseph Hospital and Eastern Maine Medical Center have set up a system whereby they will offer patches, counseling and other services to smokers during their hospital stays. Employees can get help too.

“This is a stand our two institutions need to take to hold ourselves up to the public as an example,” said Kenneth Huhn, program development manager for St. Joseph Hospital.

Smoking remains one of the leading causes of preventable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, lung disease and emphysema. Every day, seven Mainers die from smoking-related illnesses, according to the Bureau of Health. And Maine’s smoking rates are among the highest in the nation. Thirty-seven percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds smoke, as do 44 percent of men aged 18 to 30.

But making hospital campuses smoke free isn’t about forcing people to quit smoking, said Deborah Carey Johnson, EMMC chief operating officer. Instead it is about creating a smoke-free environment.

“It’s time,” Johnson said. “We’re actually a little overdue.”

Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington was the first to implement such a policy in Maine in 1994. Since then several other hospitals have adopted similar policies.

At the moment, patients at EMMC can get a doctor’s permission to use a smoking room. St. Joseph did away with its smoking room about six months ago and now requires patients to smoke outdoors.

Both hospitals will offer patients free nicotine patches and gum as warranted. While the patch gives a steady stream of nicotine, the gum gives a “blast” of nicotine that the brain craves. To help patients, both hospitals will also offer smokers bedside counseling.

Members of special counseling teams received training earlier this month from Dr. Stephen H. Herman, clinical assistant professor of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center. Herman, who has written on the subject of care for smokers in hospitals, gave detailed instructions on how to make sure patients are comfortable and don’t suffer from nicotine withdrawal while at the hospital.

Both St. Joseph and EMMC will also pay for cessation programs and nicotine replacement therapy for any employees who want to quit smoking.

“It’s their choice,” Johnson said.

EMMC estimates the cost of the services to patients and employees could be about $250,000 in the first year.

EMMC expects that the new policy may be the hardest on visitors, who are under stress as they visit sick family members.

An EMMC newsletter said the hospital won’t pay for replacement therapy for visitors, but is looking at putting a nicotine gum machine in the hospital.