Human Resources: Healer, Heal Thyself

Every employee has an annual health evaluation at the hospital. Organizers realized that one place all employees would eventually find themselves—in the right frame of mind to think about their own health, in fact—was the waiting area for these evaluations.

"There was an opportunity there to provide educational materials, and then to have them meet face to face with a nurse practitioner," says Mathes.

JT Smith, RN, MSN, BC, CVN-1, chest pain center coordinator at Spartanburg, is in charge of education for clinical healthcare providers. She educated the nurse practitioners (and physicians, as well) of the program.

"We found there was a knowledge deficit there," says Smith. "When asked what they thought the No. 1 killer in women was, the majority said breast cancer, when it's heart disease."

The benefit of this focus on employee health has a ripple effect.

"Part of our education with our employees was knowing they would take it back to the bedside," says Mathes. "This information could be passed on to their patients when they're ready to go home. Just educating our staff would help our patients."

The next step: to show continual improvement and growth. This means keeping things interesting.

"The other thing is to keep up with the employees," says Smith. "We have to keep offering them opportunities to learn more about their risks and how to live a healthy life. We have to be creative and keep our employees interested in clever ways."