OttawaHerald.com -- Community News. Community Connections.

	Franklin County, Kansas, USA

2009-11-07

2009-11-04

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Thursday, February 28, 2008 11:42 AM

Hospital adds wellness program

By BRIAN WILLIAMS, Herald Staff Writer

Many people regularly change the oil and rotate the tires on their car.

Brenda Pfizenmaier, Ransom Memorial Hospital dietician and certified diabetes educator, wants to help people do the same thing with their bodies. With the hospital’s Well Life program, she plans to do it.

The motto of the program is “think it, believe it and do it,” Pfizenmaier said.

A little more than 200 employees or about 80 percent of the hospital’s eligible staff has signed up for the program.

The program develops a personal health plan tailored to each employee’s needs. By meeting certain goals, employees can receive a $40 per month deduction in their health insurance premiums. If an employee’s spouse enrolls in the program and meets the goals, the monthly savings will increase to $50.

“Since we’re a self-insured entity, this is an investment on the front end,” Felix said. “It’s really a substantial incentive to do what we need to do anyway.”

Each individual in the program gets a calendar complete with personal goals, hints and steps to success.

“A key component is being able to track individual goals,” Pfizenmaier said.

“We want to be individualized and treat each individually.”

Each quarter, incentive prizes will be awarded. Participants in the program will touch base one a week to evaluate their progress.

The city of Ottawa has adopted the hospital’s Well Life program as well.

Melissa Fairbanks, the city’s human resources director, said the city formed a wellness committee and looked at what other cities were doing.

The program at Ransom Memorial Hospital fit the city’s needs best, she said.

The city is still signing employees up and is on target to have about half of its 160 participate.

Employees will be able to save $20 on single health insurance premiums or $40 on family plans if specific wellness goals are met, Fairbanks said.

“That was probably the biggest carrot to get employees to participate,” she said.

Allowing spouses to be eligible for the program made sense, Fairbanks said, because for some people achieving wellness may mean lifestyle changes, which would be easier to achieve with family involvement.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

Hospital adds wellness program

By BRIAN WILLIAMS, Herald Staff Writer

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article | Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.