Employee Health Screening

Advantages of Fitness Programs

Exercise reduces weight, lowers risks of heart attack and stroke, helps to control blood pressure and diabetes, and improves mood. Studies increasingly show that physical fitness may also help reduce the occurrence of certain types of cancer. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently documented another major advantage: physical fitness improves the health of the nation’s medical care expenditures.3 According to the CDC, physically active individuals incur $865 less per year in medical costs than inactive staff members.

Dr. Michael Moore, vice president and chief medical director at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, maintains that physical fitness is the most effective tool in health maintenance. “If you could prescribe exercise in a pill, it would be the number-one prescribed treatment in the world,” he said. In step with Dr. Moore’s prescription, nearly one-third of U.S. organizationes help workers pay for gym memberships, according to an Associated Press report. Subsidizing gym memberships is just one way companies promote active lifestyles.

Popular Fitness Initiatives:

1.    Allow access to on- and off- worksite gyms and recreational activities before, during, and after work hours.
2.    Offer and promote participation in after work recreation or leagues.
3.    Offer cash incentives or decreased insurance costs for participation in physical activity and/or weight management or maintenance activities.
4.    Offer shower and/or changing facilities onsite.
5.    Offer outdoor physical fitness areas such as fields and trails for staff member use.
6.    Offer bicycle racks in safe, convenient, and accessible locations.
7.    Offer onsite fitness opportunities, such as group classes or personal training.
8.    Offer an onsite physical fitness facility.
9.    Start initiatives that have strong social support systems and incentives, such as:
• Buddy or team physical activity goals
• Programs that involve workers and family
• Programs to promote physical activity, such as pedometer walking challenges
• Explore discounted or subsidized memberships at local health clubs, recreation centers, or YMCAs
10.     Offer flexible work hours to allow for physical activity during the day.
11.    Support physical activity breaks during the workday, such as stretching or walking.
12.    Host walk-and-talk meetings.
13. Map out onsite trails or nearby walking routes and destinations.
14. Have workers map out their own biking or walking route to and from work.
15. Post motivational signs at elevators and escalators to promote stair usage.
16. Offer exercise/physical fitness messages and information to workers.
17. Offer or support recreation leagues and other physical activity events onsite or in the community.
18. Start staff member activity clubs such as walking or bicycling clubs.
19. Offer onsite child care facilities to facilitate physical activity.
20. Sponsor a bike to work day and reward workers who participate.
21. Start a box and solicit fitness and health tips.

Wellness programming means different things to different companies. Effective wellness initiatives can be as simple as bringing bushel baskets of fresh fruit into break rooms to encourage better eating. They can be as extensive as building fitness facilities onsite or paying for obesity treatments.

A driving factor behind the push toward wellness spans companies of all types, sizes and cultures: that is, health care expenses are spilling over the corporate belt buckle. The annual cost of medical services in the United States is rising at seven times the rate of inflation. And the rise in medical costs is one boom pundits expect our economy to sustain.1

This trend makes it increasingly challenging for employers to maintain current levels of insurance coverage. In 2003, health care inflation forced 65 percent of companies to increase workers’ share of health costs.

Seventy-nine percent of large firms said they will increase workers’ share of health costs in 2004.2 But with lost benefits and increased financial burdens come lost morale and productivity.

Employers are searching for another way. While companies cannot control many of the supply-side elements contributing to rising health care costs—malpractice insurance rates, the nursing shortage—they can help curb demand. That’s why efforts are being redirected from illness to wellness.

The case for Employee Health and Wellness Programs is supported by an ever growing body of evidence demonstrating the high costs associated with controllable health risks:

• One study reports that obesity raises health care costs by 36 percent and medication costs by 77 percent.
• Michigan officials estimate physical inactivity cost the state nearly $8.9 billion in 2002, a cost estimated to be largely borne by employers through insurance premiums and lost productivity.
• The not-for-profit National Committee for Quality Assurance reports that the estimated average cost for postnatal care for women who did not receive prenatal care was $2,341 more than for women who had. And the indirect costs of unhealthful behavior can be just as high.

Information shows that healthier workers are more productive, spending more time at work and showing increased “presenteeism,” or productivity, while there. Further, healthier workers use fewer medical services. The five leading causes of death in the United States — heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes —  are directly linked to unhealthy lifestyles. Clearly, encouraging healthful habits presents an opportunity to improve workers’ well being, reduce the need for health care services and help control costs.

Offering staff member wellness benefits — large or small — represents an intersection between corporate social responsibility and responsibility to stakeholders. Between staff member health and corporate health. It’s frequently the right thing to do for workers and employers.

Research by Traveler’s Corp. shows a $3.40 return for every dollar invested in Employee Health and Wellness Programs. For many companies, the choice to offer staff member wellness benefits is easy—one where conscience and pragmatism align.

The challenge arises in selecting the initiatives that will deliver the most impact based on trends in your workers’ health risks and medical claims costs. From large companies to the corner deli, organization owners welcome ways to boost productivity, reduce rates of absence and cut costs. Likewise, Employee Health and Wellness Programs can range from modest to elaborate.

In determining where to focus a organization’s limited resources, looking at costs, benefits and best practices is a good starting point. This section profiles six aspects of wellness and explores their benefits to workers and employers.

When it comes to working wellness into your workforce, you want someone who knows the ins and outs of health promotion, and who can counsel workers and provide primary care – all within the context of the current regulatory and legal environment.

AAOHN’s survey reported that more than half of workers (61 percent) want to receive health and wellness information from a health care professional, such as a consultant or an worksite occupational health nurse (OHN), compared to pamphlets or brochures (18 percent) or human resources staff (15 percent).

OHNs can develop, implement and evaluate components of work site Employee Health and Wellness Programs such as screening initiatives, exercise/fitness courses, Stress management, tobacco use cessation, nutrition and weight control initiatives, and chronic illness management initiatives. Plus, OHNs can help workers navigate through complicated health plans and may even serve as a triage point between workers and their personal health care providers.

Employees might refrain from seeing their health care provider when it means time away from work, inconvenient parking, waiting time in the office and co-pays. In situations where workers are under treatment for chronic diseases like heart disease, worksite nurses can routinely monitor risk factors such as blood pressure or cholesterol on a regular basis.

It’s frequently easier for an staff member to ask an worksite nurse for information about symptoms or prescription medication than it is to schedule a follow-up visit to a personal health care provider. Advantages realized by employers include enhanced staff member morale and retention, a recruitment advantage, increased productivity and decreased time away from work.

In companies with a safety department, the OHN can evaluate and address work-related health issues, including participation in workstation evaluations to correct potential ergonomic problems, and proactively addressing muscle strains by developing stretching initiatives and involving workers in leading stretches.

Good for waistlines & your bottom line

By Sandra Simpson, APRN, BC, COHN-S, manager in Occupational Health Services at a Fortune 500 organization in Memphis, Tenn., and a member of the board of directors of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN). For a copy of the AAOHN wellness survey, visit www.aaohn.org, or call (800) 241-8014, x0.

In today’s hectic world, most of us are spending more time at work, and have increasingly less time to look after our health. For a long time, employers have understood the benefits associated with keeping workers well – increased productivity from decreased rates of absence and lowered disability claims. For these reasons, coupled with the fact that many companies realized double-digit health care costs last year, companies should consider Employee Health and Wellness Programs as a way to keep workers healthy.

But just how important are these initiatives to workers? How frequently are they willing to participate in initiatives designed to positively impact their health and wellness? Who do workers trust to provide them with important information about their health?

Answers to these questions and more were recently garnered from a study commissioned by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Inc. (AAOHN).

The AAOHN survey questioned 500 workers nationwide about their perceptions of Employee Health and Wellness Programs. More than three-quarters of all participants indicated these initiatives are a good way to improve their overall health, and nearly 60 percent consider these offerings an incentive to remain with their current employer. staff member retention and turnover impact the bottom line, so building Employee Health and Wellness Programs into the work site culture is a valuable way to help retain talented workers in addition to enhancing personal health and workplace productivity.

Health wish list

Employees appear to have their own agenda when it comes to their health. With new pressures resulting from an unstable economy, national security threats and work/balance issues, it’s not surprising that 85 percent of survey respondents cited Stress management as a priority topic for work site wellness.

In addition to stress, other preferred topic areas include screening initiatives (84 percent), exercise/physical fitness initiatives (84 percent), health insurance education (81 percent) and disease management seminars (80 percent).

In addition to lifestyle and personal health issues, those asked expressed concern about work-related health issues, including strains and injuries resulting from lifting or task-oriented muscle repetition, exposure to harmful substances, personal injury, vision changes due to computer work and workplace violence.

What you should do

With such a broad range of health concerns, a primary goal for employers is finding a way to proactively address the health needs of the largest number of workers, and effectively change unhealthy behaviors, promote wellness and ward off disease and illness.

Printed materials such as brochures, posters, fliers or pamphlets present an easy solution. But it’s important to remember that different staff members require different formats for learning. A good rule of thumb: provide information in a variety of learning formats such as videos, pamphlets, health-related quizzes, display boards, lunch-and-learn presentations and reimbursement or incentive programs.

This assumes you’ve overcome the first hurdle – getting staff members to sign on to a Employee Health and Wellness Program. While survey respondents indicated health and Employee Health and Wellness Programs are important, just six out of 10 (60 percent) reported that they participated in the Employee Health and Wellness Programs at their companies. The other 40 percent cited lack of interest and lack of time as deterrents.

This points to the need for a broad-based, structured Employee Health and Wellness Program using a innovative approach, with an incentive for participation and effective program marketing.

By investing in an organized Employee Health and Wellness Program headed by a qualified health care professional such as an worksite nurse, companies can give workers the access to the health information they want, and increase participation and generate interest at the same time.

The result: workers become savvier health care consumers who feel more in charge of their personal health. And healthier workers make for a healthier bottom line.

Stress continues to drive workers’ work-related health concerns, which is probably why most respondents (78 percent) in a recent survey claim they would participate in a Employee Health and Wellness Program to help their overall health and wellness.

In a recent study commissioned by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc. (AAOHN), 500 full-time workers nationwide were interviewed by telephone.

“Today’s workers are clearly dealing with a lot of pressures such as the effects of 9/11, an unstable economy, national security threats and work/balance issues. There is a real opportunity for employers to serve as an ally to their workers by providing them with resources to better manage their physical and emotional health – anything from stress management seminars to nutrition and physical fitness counseling,” says Deborah V. DiBenedetto, president of AAOHN.

Nearly 80 percent of respondents believe their health would improve if they were offered the right information and tools through a viable Employee Health and Wellness Program.

Topping the list of most interesting Employee Health and Wellness Programs cited by workers is stress management (85 percent), closely followed by screening initiatives (84 percent), exercise/physical fitness initiatives (84 percent), health insurance education (81 percent) and disease management seminars (80 percent).

More than half of workers (61 percent) would prefer to receive health and wellness information from a health care consultant or worksite nurse, compared to pamphlets or brochures (18 percent) or human resources staff (15 percent).

Effective Employee Health and Wellness Programs include the use of data sources in support of Employee Health and Wellness Program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Information sources can be used to complete a community needs assessment, develop realistic Employee Health and Wellness Program goals and objectives, and gain Senior Management support.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Information and statistics

• http://www.cdc.gov/DataStatistics/
• Information and statistics are available by topic (i.e., asthma, injuries, MRSA).
• Information access tools are available to customize information tables and query datasets (i.e., Healthy People DATA2010, tobacco use-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs).
• Nationwide survey information is available (i.e., National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)).

CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)

• http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/index.htm

• BRFSS is the world’s largest, ongoing telephone health survey system. BRFSS has been tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the US yearly since 1984.
• Chronic Disease Indicators are divided into seven categories: physical activity and nutrition, tobacco and alcohol use, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, overarching conditions, and other disease and risk factors.
• Prevalence information is also available (i.e., weight classification by Body Mass Index and age).

Employee Health and Wellness Program data collection and analysis is frequently avoided because of a perceived lack of resources for this very important Employee Health and Wellness Program component. Use the suggestions below to take advantage of a variety of resources available at your installation or in the local community.

Medical Interns and Residents

• If your Medical Center has an internship Employee Health and Wellness Program, get to know the Internship Director.
• Take advantage of these resources – including having the Director and/or interns/residents implement the outcome information collection plan for your Employee Health and Wellness Program.

Local college and graduate students

• Where appropriate volunteer agreements are in place, use local college/graduate students to help collect, input, and analyze Employee Health and Wellness Program data.
• Take advantage of the fact that these students are frequently looking for projects.
• If there are no “health-related” students/interns in your area, consider using organization students. Let them calculate a cost avoidance or return on investment for your Employee Health and Wellness Program.

Other Medical Personnel

• Partner with other Medical Personnel. Determine who is collecting information, what information they are collecting, and how they are collecting it.
• If they are using a survey and the survey administration process is already in place, ask if you can add a question or two.
• Be aware of other research going on at your facility. They may already be collecting information you need OR may have analysis resources that can be shared.
• Make sure other departments in the Medical center know you can always use some extra help if they have personnel with any down time. Use these resources for information entry or other administrative tasks.
• Make use of the volunteers at your Medical Treatment Facility to help collect and input data.

Past Employee Health and Wellness Program participants

• Past Employee Health and Wellness Program participants are also a good resource.
• They may be willing to lead a class session, provide encouragement to current Employee Health and Wellness Program participants, or help collect data.
You can improve data collection and analysis by taking advantage of local resources. Using these resources expands the reach and impact of your Employee Health and Wellness Program.

Keeping Employee Health and Wellness Program information organized is essential in order to be able to determine Employee Health and Wellness Program impact and participant progress. Use the simple steps below to keep your information organized.

Manage Employee Health and Wellness Program information electronically.

• Storing Employee Health and Wellness Program outcomes information electronically is the best way to manage that information.
• An electronic system will enable you to review and analyze the information more efficiently.
• Scan old surveys and other Employee Health and Wellness Program information that exist only on paper into .pdf format for permanent storage.

Find the Employee Health and Wellness Program system that works best for you.

• Some staff members are more comfortable with spreadsheet applications; others prefer to work with database applications.
• You will be more likely to use a Employee Health and Wellness Program that you are familiar and/or comfortable with.
• Standardize information collection and organization. Keep information columns/fields in the same order for all Employee Health and Wellness Programs.

Keep the Employee Health and Wellness Program as simple as possible.

• You do not have to be a Wellness Programming wizard or use complicated data entry interfaces in order to manage Employee Health and Wellness Program outcomes information.
• A simple spreadsheet is an excellent way to keep your information organized.

Store all Employee Health and Wellness Program data numerically.

• Using numbers (instead of words) will make the information much easier to enter and analyze. By way of example: use “1” for yes; “0” for no OR “1” for male; “2” for female.
• Number survey responses that contain strings of words. By way of example: instead of entering the responses: “patient education videos”, “news,” or “no TV,” number the responses so you only have to enter “1,” “2,” or “3.”

Label all Employee Health and Wellness Program data clearly.

• Make sure all the data columns, rows, or fields are labeled. The information is worthless if you don’t know what information is in which column.
• The spreadsheet/database should include an explanation for column, row, field, and data abbreviations and a key for numbered responses.

Use consistent Employee Health and Wellness Program data units.

• Make sure all information entered into a given column is expressed with the same unit of measure. By way of example, enter all heights as total inches, not as a combination of feet and inches.
Putting your data in order by using a simple system that works for you will enable you to track participant accomplishments. Keeping your information organized also makes it easier to communicate Employee Health and Wellness Program impact to leadership and make Employee Health and Wellness Program improvements as needed.

A gap analysis is an assessment tool that enables a organization to compare its current capabilities and performance with industry benchmarks and expectations for performance. A gap analysis is used to identify areas that have room for improvement.

Gap analysis can also be used for your Employee Health and Wellness Program to determine where the program stands now and how the Employee Health and Wellness Program can better follow evidence-based recommendations.

To begin a gap analysis, ask these simple questions about your Employee Health and Wellness Program:

• What is the current state of the Employee Health and Wellness Program?
• How does the Employee Health and Wellness Program measure up to evidence-based practices? (i.e., the desired state)

The gap is the difference between the current and desired states.

After the gap has been identified, the next step is to determine the action steps that are needed to close the gap. These actions answer the question: “How can the Employee Health and Wellness Program move forward towards the desired state?”

Sometimes the gaps that need to be filled can be addressed through Employee Health and Wellness Program changes; other gaps might require policy changes. However, using a gap analysis will help you identify areas for Employee Health and Wellness Program improvement and the actions needed to make progress towards those goals.

Employee Health and Wellness Program organization plan review (from Key #19)

• A Employee Health and Wellness Program organization plan is a roadmap for success.
• Your Employee Health and Wellness Program organization plan should convincingly demonstrate that your Employee Health and Wellness Program will help the organization to achieve its goals.

More smart Employee Health and Wellness Program organization planning strategies

Planning the Employee Health and Wellness Program
• Determine how your organization plans so that your planning process will be in sync with what already happens in the organization.
• Involve other staff members. A planning team brings their combined experience and perspective to the process. Including potential partners as you plan will make it easier to get their buy-in later.

Thinking of the big picture
• Consider the barriers and challenges that might be encountered during Employee Health and Wellness Program implementation. Develop strategies ahead of time to overcome these potential problems.
• Do a SWOT analysis and examine Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

This analysis will help you identify potential problem areas or resource shortfalls and opportunities for growth or increased partnerships with other installation personnel.

The WORST organization planning strategy: sitting in your office; working by yourself.

The best Employee Health and Wellness Program organization planning strategies
• Get out of your office; get out of the organization. The more staff members you involve in the Employee Health and Wellness Program planning process, the better. Always look for ways to expand your network.
• Keep your budget staff members informed. Get to know their philosophy of financial management.
• Be able to articulate the impact if your budget is not fully funded.
o Stay away from basing your impact-if-not-funded argument only on: “We have to.”
o Instead, describe the impact-if-not-funded with phrases like: injuries to workers, increased compensation costs, increased medical care costs for patients, lost work time, loss of licenses/accreditations, loss of workload to the Tricare network.
• Always have purchase requests ready to be submitted. There is frequently a short window of time to process these requests. Having the information gathered ahead of time will make it easy to submit the information right away.

A well thought-out Employee Health and Wellness Program organization plan is essential in these times of shrinking budgets and resources. A good organization plan will help you gain leadership support and help you get and keep resources needed to implement the Employee Health and Wellness Program.