University Hospital is looking to snuff out tobacco on its grounds. And that has some dreaming of a city where tobacco is prohibited.

University informed its employees Wednesday that the hospital and all of its affiliated grounds and buildings would go tobacco-free, starting with the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout day, which is Nov. 20. The move had been under serious discussion for a couple of months, and hospital leaders met with a group of smokers to find out the best way to approach it, said Rick Roche, the vice president of human resources.

"Obviously for us, we want to do it in the most thoughtful way for patients and visitors and employees," he said. "We don't want to hit them over the head with it."

But under the University ban, employees would be asked not to go to adjacent properties to smoke, Mr. Roche said.

"What we're asking is that we be good neighbors and that our employees don't walk across the street to somebody else's property and smoke on their property," he said.

The Medical College of Georgia went tobacco-free in November, but smokers still can be seen across the street from the campus, a scene University would like to avoid.

Aiken Regional Medical Centers and all of its properties have been "tobacco-free inside and out" since April 2007, said Melissa Summer, the director of marketing and public relations.

Trinity Hospital of Augusta is not tobacco-free, but "it's been a topic of discussion," said spokeswoman Rachel McKie. Doctors Hospital does not currently have plans to go tobacco-free, said community relations manager Anne Cordeiro.

University is planning to give its employees an incentive to quit -- paying co-pays for medications and offering $50 for those who go tobacco-free for six months, $100 for a year, Mr. Roche said.

Nurse manager Phyllis Siverhus quit smoking two years ago but started back after her mother died about a year later. She is planning to quit again in the next two weeks.

"I've already started taking Chantix," a smoking-cessation medication, she said. "I knew this was coming. It's one of the reasons I quit two years ago."

MCG enrolled 120 of its smokers in a free six-week course of treatment, and 106 completed it, said Janie Heath, the director of operations for the smoking-cessation clinic.

"That's huge," she said. That University next door will now soon be another tobacco-free zone had Dr. Heath thinking even bigger.

"I hope we'll be able to have a health community that is totally committed to this where all of our hospitals would champion this cause, so that we can all look at how we can reduce illness and improve health and serve as role models for our community, state and country," she said.

And maybe even beyond that.

"Maybe we'll start seeing a citywide movement on this," Dr. Heath said. "It would just be absolutely phenomenal and wonderful."