Stepping Up Healthcare
Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, has a bold message for private business: help your employees lose weight and stay healthy, because employers have the greatest impact on public health.
Cosgrove recently spoke at a panel discussing Obamacare and said that the biggest challenge right now is lowering the cost of healthcare. Employers can cut costs with programs aimed to help workers fight obesity, smoking, and chronic disease.
Healthy workers not only help lower a company’s health costs, but boost productivity in the long run.
How Businesses are Using Workplace Health Programs
About half of all private businesses have some kind of health initiative. Healthcare experts like Cosgrove strongly believe that they help businesses retain healthy workers and benefit the bottom line.
Popular employee health programs range from on-site fitness classes to healthy food programs for vending machines and cafeterias. Some employers are providing direct assistance for workers to quit smoking.
Of course, yoga classes and low-calorie snacks are only part of the solution. Employers still need to provide a safe work environment to prevent injuries that directly result in huge healthcare costs. Reducing the risk of workplace injuries has significant impact on employer health costs.
In hospitals, for example, nurses and orderlies can use motorized healthcare carts to push equipment and linen carts. Long term, these ergonomic carts reduce back, neck, and arm injuries from repetitive stress.
If your employees move heavy equipment, industrial tugs and cart movers like our healthcare carts can protect your staff and reduce your healthcare costs in the long run. Visit DJProducts.com for more info about products to improve worker health and productivity.