Should Hospitals Ban Fat Employees?

What's next? Asking doctors to stop appearing in cigarette ads? Where will this madness end? ;)

I'm 5'7", 213 lbs, and I can walk a block without falling over in a fit of wheezing. I can also RUN after my 3 year old and not die. My ass bounces unpleasantly, but I can do it. I also exercise nearly every day, my blood pressure was like 102/70 last time (couple months ago when I was HEAVIER), my cholesterol is fine, I don't have diabetes, and I don't have arthritis. Come on, people. You aren't thinking.

And yeah, I take offense at "fatties" not that anyone would care. We don't seem to count as people.

As for the hospital policy, I think it is stupid but its apparently legal. With the way things are going in a few years I guess we fat people will finally lose the weight everyone apparently desperately needs us to drop because we won't have health insurance or jobs. Starvation! Awesome!

Here's my thought process. Most of us have a few extra pounds. I'm a night shift RT so I understand how difficult it can be to care for oneself when there is not enough time to sleep or cook healthful meals. It comes down to personal responsibility and whether or not clinicians view themselves as "above the law" as it were. But those who really have a problem with this policy are those who, more than likely, have a problem moderating their own health. In Florida, most hospitals have gone to smoke-free hiring practices. They refuse to hire new employees who smoke, and any current employees are given smoke-cessation counseling and medication if they need it. Why not just institute a yearly physical or manditory PT, like the armed forces do? If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us. If I have to run to a code and bag a patient for upwards of an hour in some cases, how the heck am I going to do the job right if I'm obese?

Installing policies for healthcare professionals based on BMI will probably be self-limiting since it assumes a non-limited pool of job candidates that does not exist. It's already difficult to find enough qualified nurses without body type restrictions.

this may not be neat, but articles like this bring traffic and get comments. you guys all took the bait on this one

Yes they should fire them!

They should also fire people with more than one sex partner, people who have had extramarital sex without a condom, people who drink alcohol, people who use illegal drugs, people who abuse legal drugs (oops...there go some doctors), people who speed in their vehicles, people who drive distracted, people who don't exercise regularly, people that engage in potentially dangerous hobbies/activities outside work, people who have expired food in their homes and people who sit too much.

ALL of these HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE people set bad examples for others and raise the cost of healthcare through their careless activities.

FIRE THE LOT OF 'EM!

Should Neatorama hire only thin, rakishly handsome authors?

Insanity. Not only is the policy a matter of discriminition but it opens the door to discrimination in every industry. If you don't look like a mechanic you can't be a mechanic. As one poster mentioned, the hospital should focus on campaigning for better health and nutrition in the community. If they're so worried about insuring the obese, I would expect that all employees be DNA profiled for any undesireable markers. But this is obviously all about image. Insanity.

Just another reason for me to avoid Texas. I work in a medical facility, I'm amazing at my job, and I have a BMI of 35.8. I also walk 4 miles a day to and from work, jog at least 4 times a week, am a vegetarian, and have excellent blood pressure (well, it's probably higher after reading this ridiculous bs).

Also, why did you say "fatties" in the post? That's pretty rude and terrible. One of my major struggles as I've tried to lose weight has been hating my body; the less you like your body, the more likely you'll self-harm with food, binge and purge, whatever. Shaming people doesn't make them thin, it makes them miserable. I was very thin in high school, but I also starved myself and binged/purged. I'm much healthier now, but the non-medical-professionals who run that hospital clearly wouldn't believe me.

Those of you who think that a 35+ BMI means you're unprofessional and seriously super fat oh my god will somebody please think of the children, check out www.mybodygallery.com and actually look at people's pictures. Look, for example, at this girl: http://www.mybodygallery.com/photos-14820-body-shape.htm#img. She has my exact measurements, which means a BMI over 35. Would you be astounded and disgusted to have her process your medical bills or deliver your children?

@dannaelizabeth- Smokers can be healthy although they are partaking in an action that harms them- Um, no, smokers are not healthy. Period.

OMG Absolutely! I'd much rather see someone who is THIN and acting as a real role model than to potentially have a physician who is top of their industry. Because in the end, it's about the image far more than my receiving the best health care, what with the state of health care being so optimal right now!
My PA smokes to keep thin which I think is a much better way to go about things. She's got no bed side manner to speak of and halitosis to raise the dead. But they should keep her because she has a low BMI over someone who may come in who is fatter with more experience AND actually enjoys being around people.

I always thought it was ironic that many nurses smoke. Infact our previous school nurse (I teach at a high school) smokes often. My doctor was a very fat man. But he was a wonderful person, very knowledgeable, and had terriffic bedside manners. I never looked at his weight and thought that he was less of a doctor because of it. Another doctor who I went to in a pinch was very athletic, but horrible as a physician. Maybe that is why I could get in to see him while all other doctors were busy 2 weeks out. It would be foolish for a hospital to risk losing a wonderful employee for them being overweight.

SD Tom has been waxing nostalgic these last few posts.

People are hired based on their looks all the time. That's why we dress up for job interviews. That's why real estate agents drive fancy cars. That's why the Russian pope wears fancy watches - ummm, maybe not.

Given the penchant for sanctimoniousness in the health care industry, I don't see why they can't be held up to a standard of good health.

I like Whole Foods take on how to promote healthy lifestyles in their employees. I can respect the preference for a healthy workforce that practices what they preach.

My step-father is an overweight hospital worker. He could certainly benefit from having a goal set in front of him to diet, but this just seems remarkably harsh for the social norm of babying people. It seems like the hospitals would benefit from a mind frame more along the lines of incentives rather than not hiring fully qualified employees simply from the PR side of it.

For perspective, a BMI of 35 is:
258 lbs on someone who is 6'0"
217 lbs on someone who is 5'6"
179 lbs on someone who is 5'0"

It does NOT include measures of muscle mass. Ideally they should use body fat percentage, and even that is iffy.

Frankly, I don't have a problem dismissing employees who do not match an example of good health who are in the healthcare industry. But if we're going to do it there, we should dismiss politicians who can't practice what they preach either.

Only overweight WHITE people will be refused employment. Anything else will be attributed to Racisim. You watch.

How about instead of banning fat people from this and that we actually have government assistance programs that help people slim down if they're overweight, using real methods and real science. How about Diet and excersise programs and groups that are (gasp, dare I say it) Free. Shouldn't obesity be a national security risk? Wouldn't slimmer healthier people cost tax payers less in medical expenses for those on assistance programs already? How can fat people defend the country if they can't even go around a city block without a wheezing fit? Provide people with affordable dieting solutions instead of affordable bologna and ramen. Provide people with real solutions instead of an industry full of lies. Healthy food is expensive, diets are expensive, not everyone can afford a gym membership. Everyone knows how expensive the diet industry is and yet we pretend its no-biggie because so many are $$$ profiting from exploiting people desperate for solutions. How many fake diets are people peddling as we speak? How many plecebo pills, and "fat burning" metabo-whatever drinks?
America is getting ever-fatter because America is exploiting its people instead of helping its people.

I remember back in the day when NEATOrama used to actually be 'NEATO' all the time. Good times... good times. I even bought a few things over the years.

Now, sadly, even NEATOrama is not immune to the flim-flam powers of 'The Great Divider' who came to us in 2008, as a wolf in sheep's clothing, promising to be a 'Uniter'.

It is not nearly as NEATO here as it used to be. I won't buy anything NEATO anymore either.

When I applied for a job in the healthcare industry I thought the fact that they could refuse to hire smokers was absurd. And before I had even read this article the issue of obesity came to mind. Everyone knows that cancer kills and, well, so does eating foods that clog arteries and make one quite immobile. Smokers can be healthy although they are partaking in an action that harms them- are those who are obese healthy?

So are they going to refuse to hire smokers? What about people who have a high fat diet, but don't happen to gain weight? Will they fire people for alcohol consumption?

There are both fat and thin people who have unhealthy lifestyles: it is genetics that determines whether those choices result in obesity. So it is discrimination.

I don't see the problem.
Although I don't like the BMI system, "Severely Obese" also listed as "Class II Obesity" is not a little overweight- it's not even a lot overweight; we're talking FAT, here.
That's a seriously unprofessional state to be in while espousing a healthy lifestyle to the public, or even while pushing a broom in a hospital for that matter.
No one can can help their age, race or gender.
There aren't many valid reasons for being grotesquely obese.

Wow. So now if you can't practice perfectly what you preach, your dream job is out of reach? We'd rather they pretend to be whales at the beach??

Assuming the BMI translates into better health, and assuming hospitals are in the business of promoting better health, then this sounds like a perfect excuse for hospital corporations to save money on their employee health care costs by hiring those with presumably lower health risks. Nothing cynical at all about that, huh?

They are going to have a hard time hiring people. Most of the students in medical career training school seem to be overweight. Maybe overweight people are more caring than skinny ones.

Alarming to think that my entire life's work could end tomorrow based on how I look or even my general lifespan. I put myself through school and then grad school to become a highly trained, intelligent, medical professional. I would hate to think a short sighted, non medical hospital administrator could end the career of someone with many years experience.

Ugh, I'm so sick of BMI being used as a measure of one's health. There are plenty of people that would be considered "overweight" on the BMI scale who eat healthy and exercise and probably even more people who are in the "healthy" BMI range who eat junk all the time and hardly ever exercise. This policy would be extremely discriminatory. And calling heavy people "fatties" is also incredibly insulting.

Clearly, it is discrimination. The question is whether it is *illegal* discrimination, or even whether it is *immoral* discrimination.

I think, from a practical perspective, it's an excellent idea. I suspect it will also reduce insurance premiums for the employees as a group.