A Healthy Partnership

Hey you. Yeah, you, reading this magazine. Are you sitting down? Well get up and move, after reading this magazine of course, and be part of the less than 5 percent of adults who do 30 minutes of exercise each day. This is what hospitals wish they could do more of—speak directly to businesses and their employees about health and prevention.

With only one in three children physically active every day, and obesity-related medical conditions now accounting for $150 billion a year, or $1 of every $6 spent on health care, according to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, making those connections is critical. Since face time with patients is often limited to a once a year checkup and a few sick visits, hospitals realize they need to find a way to regularly reinforce good health practices. So they are forming creative partnerships with businesses to reach more of the masses.  

Hospitals are organizing road races, running clinics at businesses and in grocery stores, holding weight loss programs at businesses and placing physician’s offices in commercial fitness clubs. 

“The reality is people will spend less than 1 percent of their time with us,” says Don Caruso, chief medical officer at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene. “The impact we can have on this small slice of their lives is far less than they can have in terms of behaviors. This is why we are going to take care of our patients in the community.”

 “The goal is to move health care upstream to wellness and prevention,” adds Joseph Pepe, president and CEO of Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, which opened a doctor’s office at the Executive Health & Sports Center in Manchester last month. The office offers physicals and walk-in hours, and also partners with the health club on prevention and wellness programs. “In order for a wellness program to work, people need to use it. This puts us front and center.”

At the Executive, Catholic Medical Center physicians not only meet with patients, but also participate in the club’s wellness program. If members have medical issues, they can walk down the hall to see a doctor. CMC will also offer health screenings at the club.

“This is just the tip of what we can do,” Pepe says. The Executive’s owner, Michael S. Benton, says the partnership has an added convenience for parents, who can work out and see the doctor; all while their kids are in the club’s daycare. Benton says the partnership has created a buzz in the health club community since he started talking with Catholic Medical Center a year and a half ago.

“I could inundate these guys with meetings all day to Genevix Health Club Network members wanting to do this elsewhere,” says Benton of the network of 26 health clubs of which the Executive Health and Sports Center belongs. He says similar partnerships are in place at other clubs in the country. “Two years ago we would be considered a spike; now we are considered a trend.”

Pepe says the partnership is not only good for patients’ health, but also for the hospital’s financial health as more compensation from insurers is through “risk contracts” that reward quality care. He says being in a health club allows CMC physicians to see people when they are well, or at least before a condition escalates and leads to hospitalization.

A Healthy Partnership

Increasingly, businesses are inviting hospitals and other health care providers in to help employees make healthier lifestyle choices, which they hope will, in turn, lead to higher productivity and fewer health care claims. When Hamshaw Lumber in Keene saw employees in poor health due to smoking, obesity and high blood pressure, the retailer turned to Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene and its community partners to make a change.

Hamshaw offered smoking cessation programs and brought in nurses from Home Health Care, Hospice and Community Services in Keene to provide health risk assessments. The nurses also offered counseling to create individualized wellness plans. The result is a smoke-free environment and a double-digit drop in high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure and high body mass index among employees.

Hamshaw Lumber is one of 87 organizational champions taking part in Healthy Monadnock 2020, an effort spearheaded by the hospital to make the Monadnock Region the healthiest area in the country by 2020.

Another Organizational Champion, Elm City Bagel in Keene, worked with Cheshire County Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) and Cheshire Medical too address a key goal of Healthy Monadnock 2020: eating healthy. Elm City participates in Turn a New Leaf, a menu labeling program where healthy options are signified by a green elm leaf and a red heart. The program promotes fruit, vegetables and whole grains and aims to limit the intake of fat calories and sodium.

Making Fitness Fun

Combining fun and fitness is another big trend, with zombie-themed races and Color Vibe runs where participants are doused in a rainbow of colors. People even fly to Disneyworld to race through the theme park.

Thanks to a partnership between Storyland in Glen and Memorial Hospital in North Conway, North Country kids don’t need to travel nearly that far for a similar experience. The hospital funded a free road race with Storyland for area schoolchildren in 8^th grade and younger to kick off its health and wellness initiatives in the schools.

The hospital hired a company to organize the road race, which is up to two miles depending on age, and provided healthy snacks and medals. Storyland provided free admission for the day.

This fall, Storyland plans to grow the race from 150 kids to hundreds more kids and are opening it up to any child, though non-local kids must pay. The hospital is a presenting sponsor and will pay the admission for local children running the race. “Getting kids outside and active is very important,” says Eric Dziedzic, general manager of the park. “I just think it’s a great thing to partner on. Who doesn’t like to run through Storyland? It’s a very unique experience and a win-win for everybody.”

In the Lakes Region, a partnership between LRGHealthcare and Bank of NH, both headquartered in Laconia, are partnering in a pilot 12-week Biggest Loser competition at Bank of NH. A hospital dietician leads two one-hour sessions a week at the bank, one a talk on nutrition and healthy eating habits and the second an exercise session with a prize for the person who has the highest body fat loss. A registered nurse conducts a participant health assessment at the beginning of the program, which began in April, and will take a second assessment when the program ends this month.

“As a hospital we have a department where we work with a lot of businesses to do physicals, drug testing and health screenings, but we’ve never run a comprehensive program onsite,” says Carol Domin, director of nutritional programming at LRGHealthcare.

Domin was concerned there wouldn’t be enough interest, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Karen Seymour, the human resources representative at Bank of NH, says the class of 16 filled 10 minutes after the poster for the program was put up.

The program was open to employees with a BMI of 25 or higher who were willing to keep daily food logs, exercise and be photographed at the beginning and end. As a pilot, the program is free to the bank, which provides employees with paid time off to participate. Domin says the hospital hopes to offer the class to other area businesses but is not sure what the cost structure will be.