Healthy employees are more productive. They spend less money on healthcare.

But in the past, companies have had a difficult time targeting the specific health risks that threaten their workforce.

Enter HealthWorks, Southeast Missouri Hospital's preventative healthcare initiative for employers throughout the region.

"Once you partner with HealthWorks, you get a dedicated wellness consultant who will work with you at no cost to your company to determine the health risks in your work force," says Rhett Hendrickson, Southeast Missouri Hospital employer relations specialist.

Belinda Arnzen, plant office manager at Spartech, a plastic manufacturing company in Cape Girardeau, learns how her company’s health risks stack up against national averages from Rhett Hendrickson, employer relations specialist at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Eye-opening data for companies

The information has been eye-opening for many employers," says Hendrickson. "One employer told me he had no idea that so few of their employees had a regular family physician." Without regular checkups, some health problems can go unnoticed until they require much more expensive treatment options.

Debbie Leoni, RN, MSA, manager of fitness and wellness at Southeast Missouri Hospital, has been doing health screenings for the hospital for 18 years.

But HealthWorks offers a more cohesive solution for companies – from health risk assessments to screenings to wellness programs.

"Just today, we screened two people with high PSA (prostate specific antigen), which indicates potential prostate cancer. If you find prostate cancer early, it's very treatable," she says.

Leoni cites other examples of people who have discovered other serious health problems through routine screenings, such as diabetes and hypertension. "These screenings not only save dollars for companies, they can save lives," she says.

Spartech: Companies rely on good health of employees

Belinda Arnzen, plant office manager at Spartech, a plastic manufacturing company in Cape Girardeau, says companies rely on the good health of their employees. The healthier employees are outside of the workplace, the healthier they are at work in terms of missed time and accidents, she says.

"HealthWorks provides valuable information that we didn't have before," Arnzen says. "Employees have raved about the individual health reports. Some employees were pretty shocked when the results came back. Several shared with me they had no clue they had high cholesterol. It really opened a lot of eyes," she says.

Employee participation in screenings increased each time at Spartech as employees realized that specific information collected was confidential and would not be shared with the company.

Options to control rising health costs

Companies – both large and small – have several options to control rising health care costs, suggests Hendrickson.

"Number one, they can stop providing health insurance to their employees," says Hendrickson. "Number two, they can pass more of the cost of insurance onto their employees by raising co-pays and deductibles. The first two options merely address the outer fringes of this issue. If we are to truly address the issue of rising disease rates and the cost of treating these diseases, we must take action to avoid those diseases that are preventable and utilize healthcare more responsibly. That’s what HealthWorks helps with, and it’s by far the most successful option."

Hendrickson hopes HealthWorks will raise employees’ awareness of their own personal health risks and serve as a catalyst to improve a company’s overall health.

• The cost for companies to provide healthcare benefits has increased 1,142 percent since 1980, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
• Each influenza vaccination saves employers $47 in absenteeism and productivity.
• Annual claims for smokers are 31 percent higher than non-smokers.
• Hospital utilization among the obese is 143 percent higher than non-obese.

Get the Works!

To learn how HealthWorks can benefit your business, call Rhett Hendrickson at 573-331-6352.