“The transition…has injected a high likelihood of change into HR management practices for many companies. It’s difficult for HR firms to be experts in everything…Creo has expertise in wellness solutions and technology, which will complement Weston’s expertise in areas such as managing change, solving staff problems, developing staff, redesigning business processes, customizing training and executive coaching.”
What We Think: The evolving state of healthcare in the U.S. puts many employers and health systems on uncertain ground, making preemptive cost controls more important than ever. Prioritizing wellness now through strategic partnerships is an investment in a stable, profitable future.
“Not only does healthy food fuel our brains and bodies, but a diet high in unhealthy food can reduce immunity, and even impair physical and mental development. For these reasons, good nutrition is particularly important for older people and people with disabilities.”
What We Think: A healthy diet is important for everyone, but is especially so for people with heightened health risks and other physical vulnerabilities. While the components of heart healthy diets are relatively well known, many people are unaware that certain foods, such as lean fish, berries, and nuts, can promote cognitive health and the production of new brain cells.
Stressed Out? Here’s what’s going on in your brain—and what to do about it
by EAB Staff on the Education Advisory Board
“Stress is unavoidable. But getting a handle on stress is possible if you take the time to understand how it works and adopt several simple strategies for calming your nerves…[such as] using the RAIN method…”
What We Think: Like high blood pressure and obesity, stress plays an important role in exacerbating chronic diseases. The problem is, while you can have complete control of your diet, you cannot eliminate stressors from life. The RAIN method, which stands for recognition, acceptance, investigation, and non-identification, can help to reduce and relive stress in many situations.
“By joining together occupational health & safety initiatives with workplace wellness programs, you can improve employee morale and health, reduce medical plan costs, increase productivity, and reduce the frequency and severity of workers’ compensation claims.”
What We Think: There are clear connections between wellness and many other key facets of business management, including employee productivity and absenteeism—occupational safety being yet another. By jointly promoting occupational safety and wellness, employers can have a workforce that is less likely to become injured and can recover more quickly from injuries that do occur.
“Make Control Your Goal: 67 million American adults have high blood pressure…High blood pressure contributes to ~1,000 deaths per day…When your blood pressure is high, you are four times more likely to die from stroke and three times more likely to die from heart disease…”
What We Think: Seeing both the yearly cost in human lives across the U.S.—~365,000—and the monetary losses—$51 billion—underscores how much there is to gain from taking steps to lower blood pressure. Simple changes in lifestyle, such as healthy diet choices and regular exercise, could save countless lives and dollars across America and the world.
“Rapid growth of data analytics enables hospitals to spot trends, from avoidable readmissions to staffing needs.”
What We Think: To effectively shift away from fee-based models, health systems first need to identify population baselines and implement a system to track positive outcomes and quantify improvements. Platforms that embrace data analytics and enhance it with machine learning can be invaluable tools to do so.
Population Health Management Demands an Effective Set of Measures
by Bill Siwicki on Healthcare IT News
“Healthcare and related organizations undertaking population health must agree upon what population health is, harmonizing on goals and measurements…[because] without population health measurement…there can be no population health management.”
What We Think: Having clear wellness goals and tools for gathering hard data on outcomes is essential for wellness programs to impact population health. If an initiative does not have a quantifiable ROI then employers should look for a different, verifiable investment in wellness. A platform with detailed reporting enables informed decision making on healthcare strategies into the future.
“Consumers’ growing use of social media has untapped potential for the health care system.”
What We Think: From sites such as PatientsLikeMe that connect patients to one another and the healthcare community to viral campaigns like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, social media will continue to shape the development of healthcare. This makes it crucial for any wellness initiative to incorporate social and communication technologies.