They're getting serious about wellness down on the bayou.
The Louisiana Hospital Association this month launched a workplace wellness initiative involving more than 100 hospitals across the Pelican State. The Smart Choices, Better Health Hospital Campaign will be implemented over the next three years, focusing first on promoting nutrition, exercise and weight loss, and then turning the emphasis toward smoking cessation.
The need is definitely there. The Trust for America's Health reports that Louisiana was the fifth-fattest state in 2011 because 31.6% of the adult population is obese, as are 20.7% of children. In addition, 10.7% of the population has diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks Louisiana No. 10 among states in tobacco use.
"The health status statistics in Louisiana are not wonderful. Some of us are tired of seeing our state close to the bottom of the lists on health status," LHA President and CEO John Matessino tells HealthLeaders Media.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if we are going to try to improve health in this country we are going to have to do things to keep the costs of healthcare down. We are spending so much money on healthcare in this country that supports the costs of bad health practices of people," he says.
Matessino says healthcare workers must be role models in any effort to encourage Louisianans to take personal responsibility for improving and maintaining their health.
"If we are going to be leaders in the delivery of healthcare we have got to learn to walk the walk and talk the talk when it comes to healthy lifestyles," he says. "We want our hospitals to be examples to the community and hopefully through their efforts they can promote all businesses and schools to be aware of health and what it takes to eat healthy and not be sick," he says. "We are out there telling people 'look folks we are out here when you get sick but we don't want to take care of you prematurely.'"
Hospital CEOs throughout Louisiana sent "Campaign Champions" from their organizations to Baton Rouge last week for orientation. There they were given the training and resources to build a wellness team at their hospitals that will create hospital-specific worksite wellness action plans for their employees and communities, Matessino says.
LHA wants hospitals to design programs that fit their specific size and community rather than shoe-horning all hospitals into a one-size-fits-all program. The campaign has the backing of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the Louisiana Business Group on Health.
"It's great to see hospitals leading the way to improve the health of Louisianans, not just for their patients but also for their employees who should serve as role models for their patients," DHH Secretary Bruce D. Greenstein said in a media release. "Hospitals are large employers, and I am happy they are taking the opportunity to set an example of how to help people take charge of their own health."
There are legitimate concerns about the wellness movement and its potential to infringe on the privacy of the people it is purportedly designed to benefit, particularly if more emphasis is placed on punishing unhealthy workers. However, those concerns should not cancel out efforts to promote personal responsibility for one's health. Safeguards can be built into any wellness program to ensure that they are not discriminatory toward age, sex, race, or income.
The fact is that the United States can no longer afford to ignore bulging waistlines. The cost is simply too dear. With that in mind, hospitals are the perfect places to build a culture of wellness. They are in every sizeable town in every state, and workers at these hospitals—from environmental staff to CEOs —represent a broad socioeconomic spectrum.
Successful wellness programs will not only improve the lives of hospital employees and the people they serve, but will also help the push to eliminate billions of dollars of preventable costs in hospitalizations associated with tobacco use and complications from overweight.
It's a win-win-win for hospitals, their employees, and the rest of us, too.
John Commins is the news editor for HealthLeaders.