LAST FALL,
Beaufort Memorial was among
the frst to sign on to a workplace wellness
program ofered by the South Carolina
Hospital Association (SCHA). In recog-
nition of what we’ve already accom-
plished, SCHA named BMH a Center
of Excellence for wellness.
Working Well
Te program, called
Working Well
,
focuses on chronic disease prevention by
creating worksite wellness environments
that support hospital employees’ healthy
choices. It is funded through a three-year grant
from the Duke Endowment, with the goal of
improving the health of hospital employees
across the state.
“Improving employee health not
only makes workers more productive,
it also enhances their quality of life,”
says David Homyk, vice president for
Human Resources at BMH. “Because
hospitals tend to be among a com-
munity’s largest employers, we can set
the standard for all businesses to model
good health.”
Te initiative combines NC Prevention
Partners’ signature WorkHealthy America pro-
gram and the work of other health initiatives.
“Essentially, S.C. hospitals were asked
by SCHA to take their organization’s
health risk assessment, provided by
WorkHealthy America,” says BMH
LifeFit Wellness Services Director
Mark Senn. “The assessment evalu-
ates an organization’s wellness
policies, benef its and environmen-
tal supports related to tobacco use,
nutrition and physical activity. And,
although our hospital is more innova-
tive than most in its approach to well-
ness, we were a bit surprised to see that
our scores in all three areas were average.”
Making simple changes
Hospitals that signed up were given recom-
mendations for improvements and access to
tools to make changes. Beaufort Memorial’s
team chose to focus frst on nutrition.
“We have been striving towards
implementing our food service manage-
ment company’s (Sodexo) Wellness &
You! Program,” says Roxanne Davis-Cote,
clinical nutrition manager at BMH. “Tis
program not only focuses on providing
healthy options in the retail venues, but
also provides education for the Food and
Nutrition Department employees, BMH
employees and BMH customers. Much of
what the Sodexo Wellness & You! Program
is able to ofer this organization falls
in line with the
Working Well
activities
around nutrition.”
Monitoring results
As part of the
Working Well
program,
hospitals can monitor their own improve-
ment and see how they stack up in real
time by going onto the NC Prevention
Partners website. BMH’s goal is to move
from a “C” to an “A.” Ten the team can
direct their attention to stopping tobacco
use and increasing physical activity.
“We really are ahead in this efort be-
cause we already ofer employees free ac-
cess to our LifeFit Wellness Center,” says
Homyk. “In fact, if they participate, their
health insurance premium is lowered.
We’re also doing a lot of other things, so
moving the organization to the top of the
class won’t be that hard. In fact, we’re very
enthusiastic about the challenge!”
BMH named Center
of Excellence for wellness
Summer ofers a rainbow of
vegetables
to enjoy. Get tips for putting more color on
your plate at
www.YouTube.com/Beaufor tMemorial
.
Doctor Referral Service: 888-522-5585 • Health Scene
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