Posts from — July 2010

Advantages of Prenatal Care and Breastfeeding

The old proverb “an ounce of avoidance is worth a pound of cure” is namely relevant to when applied to preventive measures taken during pregnancy, when several extra ounces of birth weight can save a child’s life.

During pregnancy, simple precautions can help avoid catastrophic results; giving up tobacco use, for example, drastically decreases the risk of miscarriage and pre-term labor.

The March of Dimes reports that if all women took adequate folic acid before conception and during pregnancy, the number of babies born with a neural tube defect could drop by as much as 70 percent.

The physical and emotional benefits of proper prenatal care to a mother and child are underscored by a strong business case for offering prenatal wellness benefits. Nationwide’s Chief Medical Director, Dr. Michael Moore, estimates costs to care for one baby delivered prematurely could approach $500,000.

First steps in fostering a prenatal program -  

• Invite the March of Dimes to present information about prenatal health at an staff member brownbag lunch or breakfast meeting.

• Hold prenatal care information courses for interested workers during lunch.

• Provide educational materials about the effects of alcohol, drugs and smoking on an unborn child.

• Offer incentives for adopting healthy lifestyles during pregnancy.

• Offer prenatal programs and education as part of the company healthcare package.

Advantages of Tobacco use Cessation Programs

Instances of respiratory illnesses, cancer and other illnesses could be decreased through tobacco use cessation efforts. Smoking cessation programs can provide gigantic opportunities for improved health.

The American Cancer Society reports that use of tobacco staff members cost corporations an typical of $1,429 per smoker per year in increased healthcare costs over non-use of tobacco staff members.

Implementing a tobacco use cessation program costs an typical of $45 per employee per year, saving companies an typical of $1,383 per year for each employee who quits tobacco use. Additionally, the American Cancer Society reports that smokers are absent from work 50 percent more often than nonsmokers.

They are also 50% more likely to be hospitalized and have 15% higher disability rates. Tobacco use decreases onthe- job productivity as well. Staff Members who take four 10- minute smoking breaks a day work more than a month less per year than employees who don’t take smoke breaks.

Places to start with tobacco use cessation programs -  

• Develop a “buddy” program to provide encouragement for those who commit to stop tobacco use.

• Offer lung capacity tests at company wellness fairs.

• Consider reimbursement for smoking cessation tools -  nicotine gum, patches and inhalers.

• Limit smoking areas in the workplace.

• Present on-site smoking cessation sessions.

Advantages of Nutrition Programs

Nutrition directly impacts almost every aspect of physical and mental health. A healthy diet can help protect against such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, stroke, certain cancers and depression. Obesity, which is one of the most common conditions linked to diet, affects a record number of Americans.

The American Journal of Wellness estimates the cost of obesity to USA  business to exceed $12.5 billion in health care, sick leave, and life and disability insurance.

Further, one study reports that obesity raises health care costs by 36 percent and medication costs by 77 percent. to offset the health risks of obesity and poor diet, many companies have committed to helping employees ensure proper nutrition and undertake weight control programs.

Popular nutrition programs -  

• Give workers with educational materials or classes on proper nutrition provided by a registered dietitian.

• Offer onsite Weight Watchers meetings or other weight management programs.

• Give nutritious and health conscience meal options in the cafeteria and vending machines.

• Clearly post nutrition information for all cafeteria and vending machine items.

• Offer low cost, healthy, take-home dinner choices for employees and their families.

• Draw attention to healthy eating habits by providing token incentives, such as pencils or ID holders, for achieving five fruits or vegetable servings a day for a week.

Nutrition programs in action

While many companies address weight control through fitness initiatives, companies are increasingly focusing on nutrition through separate programming. Recognizing the productivity boost and reduced medical expenditures that come with maintaining a healthful weight, many companies may help pay for obesity treatments for workers.

For example, to improve the health of dangerously obese staff members, drug maker Wyeth reportedly compensates for stomach-shrinking surgeries that carry price tags of up to $40,000.

A 2003 Society of Human Resource (HR) Management study shows that 24 percent of companys offer weight loss programs. In Ohio, Honda offers an on-site, registered dietitian who provides individual or group consultations on weight management. Body fat analysis and BMI  measurements are available to workers at any time.

At Grange Insurance’s Columbus headquarters, the cafeteria chef assesses meals and provides employees basic nutrition information, including Weight Watchers points.

A lot of corporations partner with the American Cancer Society to offer nutrition information through the “5-ADay” program, which provides employers free signage and educational materials about the importance of consuming five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

The program also offers a fruit and vegetable “frequency card” that gives staff members a free portion of fruit or vegetables after he or she’s purchased a preset number.

Advantages of Exercise Plans

Exercise lowers weight, lowers risks of heart attack and stroke, helps to control blood pressure and diabetes, and improves mood. Studies increasingly show that exercise might also help reduce the occurrence of certain kinds of cancer.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently documented another major advantage -  exercise improves the health of the nation’s medical care expenditures.3 As reported by the CDC, physically active person incur $865 less per year in healthcare costs than inactive people .

Dr. Michael Moore, vice president and chief medical director at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, maintains that exercise is the most effective tool in health maintenance. “When you might 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 United States  companies help workers pay for fitness club memberships, according to an Associated Press report. Subsidizing fitness club memberships is just one way companies encourage active lifestyles.

Popular fitness-forward initiatives -  

• Start a company softball or volleyball league.

• Compile and distribute information about opportunities to join athletic groups in your community.

• Offer partial or complete reimbursement for exercise facility memberships.

• Hold aerobics, karate, yoga or other types of fitness classes on-site.

• Give extended lunch hours for workers who commit to lunchtime exercise programs.

• Introduce an onsite fitness facility that is free, or available at a nominal cost, to workers and their families.

• Conduct on-site wellness fairs that include fitness demonstrations and promote fitness activities and resources.

Wellness program means different things to different businesses. Effective wellness programs may be as simple as bringing bushel baskets of fresh fruit into break rooms to encourage better eating. They may be as robust as building fitness facilities on-site or paying for obesity treatments.

A driving factor behind the push toward wellness spans organizations of all types, sizes and cultures -  that is, healthcare expenses are spilling over the corporate belt buckle.

The annual cost of medical services in the U.S. 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 difficult for companys to maintain current levels of insurance coverage. In 2003, healthcare inflation forced 65 percent of businesses to increase employees’ share of healthcare costs.

Seventy-nine% 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 corporations can’t 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 disease to wellness.

The case for wellness is supported by an ever growing body of evidence demonstrating the high costs associated with controllable health risks -

• One study reports that obesity raises healthcare costs by 36% and medication costs by 77%.  

• Michigan officials estimate lack of exercise cost the state almost $8.9 billion in 2002, a cost estimated to be largely borne by corporations through insurance premiums and lost productivity.

• the not-for-profit National Committee for Quality Assurance reports that the estimated typical cost for postnatal care for women who didn’t receive prenatal care was $2,341 more than for women who had. and the indirect costs of unhealthful behavior may be just as high.

Data shows that healthier workers are more productive, spending more time at work and showing increased “presenteeism,” or productivity, while there. Moreover, healthier workers use fewer medical services.

The five leading causes of death in the USA - heart illness, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary illness and diabetes -  are directly linked to unhealthful lifestyles. Clearly, encouraging healthful habits presents an opportunity to improve employees’ well being, reduce the need for healthcare services and help control costs.

Offering staff member wellness benefits - big or small - represents an intersection between corporate social responsibility and responsibility to stakeholders. Between staff member health and corporate health. It’s often the right thing to do for workers and companys.

Research by Traveler’s Corp. shows a $3.40 return for every dollar invested in Wellness Programs. for a lot of corporations, the option to offer worker wellness benefits is easy-one where conscience and pragmatism align.

The challenge arises in selecting  the programs that will deliver the most impact based on trends in your employees’ health risks and medical claims costs.

From large companies to the corner deli, corporation owners welcome ways to increase productivity, lower rates of absenteeism and cut costs. In like manner, wellness programs can range from modest to elaborate.

In determining where to focus a corporation’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 employees and businesss.

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

AAOHN’s survey stated that more than half of staff members (61 percent) want to receive wellness information from a health care specialist, such as a advisor or an onsite occupational health nurse (OHN), compared to  handouts or  handouts (18 percent) or human resources (HR) staff (15 percent).

OHNs can develop, implement and evaluate components of work site wellness programs such as screening programs, exercise/fitness courses, stress management, smoking cessation, nutrition and weight control programs, as well as chronic disease management programs.

Plus, OHNs can help staff members navigate through complicated health plans and may even serve as a triage point between staff members and their personal healthcare providers.

Workers might refrain from seeing their healthcare provider when it means time away from work, inconvenient parking, waiting time in the office and co-pays.

In situations where employees are under treatment for chronic conditions like heart illness, onsite nurses can routinely monitor risk factors like blood pressure or cholesterol on a regular basis.

It’s often easier for an staff member to ask an on-site nurse for information about symptoms or prescription medication than it is to schedule a follow-up visit to a personal healthcare provider.

Benefits realized by corporations include enhanced employee morale and retention, a recruitment advantage, increased productivity and decreased time away from work.

In corporations 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 programs and involving workers in leading stretches.

Wellness Programs are excellent for waistlines and your bottom line

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 employees well - increased productivity from lowered absenteeism and lowered disability claims.

For these reasons, coupled with the fact that many businesses realized double-digit health care costs last year, businesses ought to consider Wellness Programs as a way to keep employees healthful.

But just how important are these programs to employees? How often are they willing to participate in programs designed to positively impact their wellness? Who do staff members trust to provide them with important information about their health?

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

The AAOHN survey questioned 500 employees nationwide about their perceptions of Wellness Programs. More than three-quarters of all participants indicated these programs are a good way to improve their overall health, and almost 60 percent consider these offerings an incentive to remain with their current employer.

Employee retention and turnover impact the bottom line, so building 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.

Wellness 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% of survey respondents cited stress management as a priority topic for work site wellness.

In addition to stress, other preferred topic areas include screening programs (84 percent), exercise/physical fitness programs (84 percent), medical insurance education (81 percent) and disease management (DM) workshops (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.

Beginning a Wellness Program

With such a wide range of health concerns, a key goal for corporations is locating a way to proactively address the health needs of the biggest number of employees, and effectively change unhealthy behaviors, promote wellness and ward off illness and illness.

Printed materials such as  handouts, posters, fliers or  handouts present an easy solution. But it’s important to remember that different people  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 have overcome the first hurdle - getting individuals  to sign on to a wellness program. While survey respondents indicated wellness programs are important, just six out of 10 (60 percent) reported that they participated in the wellness programs at their businesses. the other 40% cited lack of interest and lack of time as deterrents.

This points to the need for a comprehensive, structured wellness program using a creative approach, with an incentive for participation and effective program marketing and advertising.

By investing in an organized wellness program headed by a certified healthcare professional like an onsite nurse, corporations can give employees the access to the medical information they want, and increase participation and generate interest at the same time.

The result -  employees become savvier healthcare consumers who feel more in charge of their personal health. and healthier employees make for a healthier bottom line.

Wellness programs are designed to help improve the overall health and awareness of health related issues of staff members in the workplace.

Although these programs are set up to help person set, work toward and maintain healthful lifestyle options, they sometimes fail.

There are five primary reasons wellness programs are unsuccessful. the first reason is because of lack of employee interest. It’s imperative when presenting a new wellness program to staff members that every effort is made to communicate the all encompassing benefits of the program to the organization and to the individual.

Next, wellness programs can fail because of lack of staff resources. When a wellness program is introduced but there are few resources to offer with the program, it will be difficult for an staff member to want to take benefit of it.

As part of the previous reason for failure of a wellness program, inadequate funding also can set a program up for failure. With little money to promote a wellness program, it could be challenging to spread the word about the benefits of a wellness program.

An all too frequent reason that wellness programs don’t reach optimal success is because the program and its coordinators fail to engage high risk employees. When high risk employees have the majority of the health issues in a workplace, they should be the most targeted person for a wellness program.

To see 100 percent participation is the optimal goal, but to engage those with the most severe health concerns is a gigantic priority.

Finally, the inability to enlist the support of higher management is a significant reason why wellness programs might not be successful. Without the endorsement, support and flexibility that management can offer a wellness program, it is far less likely that it will actually succeed.

Wellness programs succeed for just as many reasons as they fail. With engaged and excited staff members, obtaining wellness objectives is attainable and promising.

Corporate wellness involves many aspects of the workplace and can look dramatically different based upon the shared wellness vision.

Wellness efforts can also be uniquely tailored to women and men, old and young or to special health needs. Wellness in the workplace must be a top priority regardless of gender, age or special needs.

Living healthful requires time and attention and often special wellness activities designed by a wellness committee can help reach certain health goals.

Most wellness programs allow for each employee to dictate the objectives and activities that’ll make up their wellness objectives.

Often, the company will jump in with wellness programs or incentives. as when sponsoring a competition, some companys will pay workers for reaching weight loss objectives.

Other wellness ideas may include special benefits or compensation for reaching health goals. It may be difficult to gage what’ll motivate some workers, but knowing that most workers do not want to pay more for healthcare is a good start.

A solid wellness program is a surefire way to reduce health care costs, lost vacation time, and other miscellaneous medical testing.

With a unified wellness committee taking employees opinions into account, there must be goals set up across the board that will help focus and monitor healthcare goals for all involved employees.

Some workers may select to focus on specific health concerns while others may want to improve their overall health through diet, exercise and stress relief techniques.

When some employees seem adamant about admitting health concerns, it might be helpful to reaffirm confidentiality with each staff member.

Other staff members may find it helpful to enroll in a group or a partner in working toward health care objectives. Studies have proven that working on any kind of goal with another individual increases the percentage of completion and success.

Corporate wellness can come in any shape, form or timeframe. It’s more important to have resources in place for employees to ensure a balanced and healthful lifestyle.

Wellness programs encourage individuals  to start taking steps toward healthcare prevention by teaching healthful decision making. These programs are designed to decrease healthcare costs, lower absenteeism, and increase productivity.

It is believed that many illnesses in America are avoidable by proper health screenings and small changes toward a healthier lifestyle. the most valuable resource a business has is its staff members.

By investing time and money into them, the company would reap the advantages of having more focused and healthier workers.

For an employee, wellness programs can lead you towards living a healthier lifestyle and becoming a much healthier person. Depending on what a company offers you are able to learn how to reduce stress, keep your sugar levels in control, and even lose weight.

The support you’ll receive from your coworkers will help you achieveyour health goals. From consuming a healthful lunch together to forming a racquetball tournament, you’ll develop a feeling of camaraderie between coworkers.

Social influences are a major part of a healthy life style. You’ll be getting encouragement from peers as well as encouraging others around you to live healthy.

For corporations, these wellness programs proved to have a considerable return on the investment put into them.

The small amount of funds it costs to start these programs and continue with them is insurmountable compared to what they save with increased productivity and decreased costs spent on sick leave and insurance premiums.

Having company support is a good begin to living a healthier lifestyle. No matter what the approach, Wellness programs can help make a positive change in your job, life and the community.

Beginning these programs is just one way businesss around the U.S. are creating a healthier and more productive workforce.