Hospitals are increasingly offering employee wellness programs to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent chronic conditions such as diabetes. A new report from the LMP’s research department documents the effects of a wellness program piloted by the LMP’s Workplace and Community Health Program, in partnership with Mount Sinai Beth Israel (MSBI) and 1199SEIU, which helped staff lose weight and develop healthy habits.
The program implemented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) at MSBI’s inpatient and ambulatory facilities from 2015 through 2017. As documented in the report, which should be of interest to hospital wellness staff, evaluators and hospital workers, having a well-functioning, collaborative labor-management DPP planning committee was instrumental to successful implementation. Early buy-in from labor and management partners was also critical to success.
The pilot paved the way for further Union and management cooperation on wellness program planning, leading to the formation of a joint wellness committee in August 2017. That committee has achieved early successes such as the launch of designated walking routes in and outside the hospital.