With the launch this year of its Healthification initiative, there’s a whole lot of jumping going on these days at Springfield-based St. John’s Health System.
Healthification is a four-part program described as the mindful pursuit of well being by Dr. Lance Luria, vice president and medical director of health and wellness for St. John’s parent entity, St. Louis-based Mercy. Employees are gearing up to celebrate National Employee Health and Fitness Day May 18 with a jumping-jack challenge that will have 38,000 co-workers in four states working to complete 1 million jumping jacks, illustrating the message that exercise can be fun when people work out together.
With alarming data about the costs of preventable health issues – Providence Journal reported U.S. spending of $86 million on obesity-related health effects in 2009, with that amount expected to hit $344 billion by 2018 – it’s not surprising that St. John’s is among companies utilizing wellness programs to improve worker health and save money.
“Everybody understands there’s only a certain amount of money available,” Luria said. “There are more health care issues coming down the pike than we can afford.” Traditionally, health care costs have been weighted with disease management, but that model creates “downstream consequences,” Luria said. Now, more companies are investing in prevention – and in encouraging employees to take responsibility for choices that affect their health.
“If we’re going to make any inroads in the next five to 10 years, we need to look at employee lifestyle,” he said.
The four components of Healthification are diet, physical activity, emotional well-being and tobacco cessation. St. John’s has had a tobacco cessation program for nearly 10 years, said Marilyn Hill, executive director for corporate health and wellness at St. John’s. The program, which got its start with St. John’s co-workers, has an 80 percent success rate after two months and a 56 percent success rate after a year. Now, the program is being used by other companies that want to help employees kick the nicotine habit.
“One of the major benefits of our system is that we are able to do things with our co-workers, and when we have success, we bring it out to the market,” Luria said. “We didn’t just read about this, we’ve done this with our own employees, and it has been successful.”
While St. John’s Healthification effort is rooted in-house, there is help available for companies that want to institute wellness programs and need guidance.
In October, Springfield insurance firm Ollis & Co. opened its wellness center, with workout spaces, but other offerings include healthy cooking demonstrations.
Recent classes focused on back care and sleeping, which can be problematic for over-stressed business leaders. A four-week yoga class through the center costs $45; personal training begins at $45 a session and seminars are usually about $30, said Cameron Black, Ollis wellness director, noting that services are geared most specifically toward upper-level management because space at the center is somewhat limited, but Ollis officials don’t want the center’s reach to stop at the top.
“We wanted to create a place in Springfield where CEOs and upper-level management from other companies could go and get that wellness experience,” Black said. “Our vision is that we can bring them in on this, and once they have an understanding it’s easier for them to go back to their companies and install a wellness plan and see the benefits firsthand.”
Like St. John’s, Ollis & Co. has made employee wellness a priority in recent years and can tout its benefits. Black noted, for example, that an initial goal for the wellness center was to provide employees a place to exercise.
About six years ago, Ollis & Co. replaced its vending machines, instead providing filtered water and fresh fruit for employees.
“We noticed that a lot of employees weren’t eating breakfast on a regular basis, so we thought that if we could bring in some sort of apples, banana or alternatives, it would at least get them started on the right path at the start of the day,” he said. “And the same with soda. Obviously, it has a lot of sugar and calories and people use it more as a crutch, so to speak, to get themselves going in the morning.”
Black said employees report better concentration levels with healthy snacks – no sugar highs and afternoon crashes – and the company has seen other improvements.
“Every year we’ve (offered water and fruit), we have made significant improvements with weight loss and blood pressure, triglyceride levels and cholesterol levels, also,” said Black, who added that the company spends about $45 a week on fruit and water.
At Big Time Results, corporate wellness services account for about 70 percent of business, said owner Noah Alldredge, who noted that the company also provides personal training. According to
www.bigtimeresults.com, the company’s corporate wellness services include group exercise classes, healthy living seminars, health and fitness assessment and group and individual goal development. Packages start at $15 per participant for twice a week and $20 per participant for three times a week with groups of eight or more. Alldredge said Big Time Results has 10 corporate clients, ranging from 10 to 1,200 employees.
Most corporate wellness work is done on-site at clients’ companies, Alldredge said.
Companies that work with Big Time Results also don’t have to invest in expensive equipment, as Alldredge’s company uses whatever facilities are available.
“We’re like MacGyver,” Alldredge said. “We just work with anything we have.”
He said most companies that work with Big Time Results have programs that are partially employee funded and partially company funded, which sometimes means that employees pay up front and are reimbursed if they maintain certain attendance levels.
Whether a company decides to create a wellness program in-house or to utilize outside help, Ollis & Co.’s Black is confident that more companies will put programs in place as they combat rising health care costs.
In its March report, “Making the Case for Workplace Wellness Programs,” the Wellness Council of America found that the cost of U.S. health care is rising rapidly and is expected to reach $4.2 trillion – or 20 percent of gross domestic product – by 2016. That report also found that employees at high risk for certain health conditions – often those affected by lifestyle choices – are responsible for 25 percent of employer medical costs. The report also cited 378 peer-reviewed studies that showed work-site health promotion programs improve knowledge, behaviors and underlying conditions. Among the findings of those reports, 18 showed that workplace wellness programs reduced medical costs, and 14 percent showed a drop in absenteeism expenses.
“In the past, wellness programs were kind of looked on as a nice benefit,” Black said. “Companies that are looking for ways to be fiscally responsible are now seriously looking at wellness programs. I see it really taking off in the next year or so.”[[In-content Ad]]
