Like the parable of the cobbler’s children going without shoes, many of today’s hospitals are so focused on improving patient care that they overlook the needs of their own employees for diagnostic health-screening services.
That’s not the case at Huntington Hospital, a 625-bed, not-for-profit health system in Pasadena, California.
Huntington’s multi-faceted screening initiative is the foundation of a cohesive wellness program that many other hospitals can learn from. BioIQ spearheaded the biometric screening portion of the wellness program by offering complete testing services for diabetes and heart disease.
Huntington’s primary objective with health screening is to gauge the health of the workforce and hold employees accountable to measurable health standards. Whether employees want to visit a local lab, attend an onsite screening event, order a test kit for home delivery, or visit their personal physicians, BioIQ automates the process of making appointments, sending reminders, generating lab reports and integrating the results into electronic health records.
The program has been an overwhelming success. Here are some of the highlights of one of Huntington’s annual screening programs:
- They expected 1,600 participants and ended up with nearly 2,100.
- Of those that enrolled, 1,956 followed through with their screenings – a 94 percent completion rate.
- Nearly 96 percent of participants stated that they would be very willing to recommend the onsite screening service to friends or family in the future.
Many hospitals can learn from Huntington’s practical experience on how to launch an effective health-screening program, from driving participation to achieving specific wellness outcomes to funneling at-risk individuals into disease management programs.
“Having screening as part of our wellness program has been tremendously valuable for our employees. Many people have discovered risk factors or learned about borderline health conditions, and then gone on to change their lifestyles to improve their health.”
— Debbie Ortega, Chief HR Officer, Huntington Hospital
