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Hospitals Promoting Wellness in Their Workplaces
COLUMBUS - Health care employees at hospitals throughout Ohio have additional incentive to practice what they preach. The Ohio Hospital Association’s Foundation for Healthy Communities challenged hospitals across Ohio to become the healthiest workplaces by offering support for employee wellness pilot projects over the next three years.
The Foundation announced awards of $100,025 for six employee wellness initiatives. In total, the grant recipients employ nearly 6,000 workers in Athens, Butler, Cuyahoga, Lake, Montgomery, Preble, Scioto and Washington counties. The hospitals are matching the funding with more than $550,500 of in-kind or monetary support.
The Healthy Hospitals challenge parallels the Healthy Ohioansä initiative created under the direction of Gov. Bob Taft and the Ohio Department of Health to adopt healthier lifestyles. Healthy Ohioans is a multiyear, statewide health and wellness project, initiated in 2001 when data revealed that Ohio was in the bottom five states in lifestyle risk factors such as obesity, tobacco use, and lack of physical activity.
In conjunction with the foundation’s announcement of its Hospitals As The Healthiest Workplaces in Ohio! grants, Taft praised hospitals for their leadership.
“We are pleased to see Ohio hospitals taking steps to encourage hospital employees to set an example for the patients and communities they serve,” Taft said. “Practicing healthy behaviors is something hospitals can and should do not only because they are in the health care business but also because they tend to be the largest employers in their communities and have a responsibility to show leadership.”
In addition, Lynne Ayres, director the foundation said, “The programs are another way for the hospitals to demonstrate how much they value the health of their employees and their continued employment and productivity. The objective is to integrate these programs into the culture of the hospitals and reduce costs through lower turnover, absenteeism and benefits expense.”
The six grants totaling $100,025 were awarded to the following institutions: · Berger Health System in Circleville received $17,720 towards enrolling 75 percent of its workplace into the Wellness At Work program. Employees will participate in a health risk appraisal that will be used to identify and track individual and corporate modifiable health risks to which education will be targeted. · Euclid Hospital in Cleveland was awarded $17,589 to expand its Strong and Healthy Employees program with personalized clinical support as well as electronic communications to those diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, and/or high cholesterol. · Marietta Memorial Hospital received $20,000 to initiate the Shape Up, MMH! program that will identify, educate and sustain motivation of employees with high risk for cardiovascular disease. · Middletown Regional Hospital was awarded $20,000 to establish the Wellness Works program. It will offer free health assessments to all participants, with referrals to wellness education, and, if needed, intervention. Participants will receive a monthly deduction on their health insurance premiums. · O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens received $9,580 towards initiation of the O’Bleness Means Health program to engage 25 percent of its workforce to take initial assessments and set personal goals for exercise and nutrition. The program includes a smoking cessation and stress management component. · Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth was awarded $15,136 for the Get-A-Life program. It sets goals for blood pressure, weight, tobacco usage and fitness and rewards participants with fitness center memberships or opportunities for a walking program.
The grant recipients were selected from a pool of 44 applications on the basis of creativity, commitment of hospital leadership, involvement by employees, external collaboration, methods of evaluation and ability to replicate the program and share results with the community at large.
“While the approaches to wellness differ at the six institutions, the key component for all of them is evaluation,” said Ayres. Measuring the effectiveness of these wellness programs and their impact on the participants’ health status will tell us what incentives work over a sustained period of time. Many employees will monitor health risk factors throughout the grant to determine if improvements have occurred as a result of a particular incentive or behavior modification.”
The Foundation for Healthy Communities was created and endowed by Ohio hospitals in 1994 to promote creative collaborations for better health. It encourages hospitals and health systems to move beyond traditional roles of healing illness and injury and develop promising methods for promoting health in ways that will help all members of their community realize their potential.
The Foundation is an arm of the Ohio Hospital Association. OHA represents 170 hospitals and 40 health systems throughout Ohio. OHA’s mission is to provide leadership. OHA works with members in meeting the health care needs and improving the health status of the communities they serve. Visit OHA and learn more about the Foundation for Healthy Communities at www.ohanet.org/HealthyCommunities/. |
