Kewanee Hospital, a rural critical access hospital, has excelled in their journey to improve the wellness of their employees, patients and the community they serve.  They have done so through a variety of wellness programs that have had great results in reducing BMI, blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels of participants.

Ochsner Health System began their “I Can Do It!” program by offering students scholarships to an obesity program at a fitness center, which it still does. But in 2007, the program commissioned a customized mobile fitness unit to travel the region supplementing shrinking physical education programs and encouraging healthy, active lifestyles. In 2010, the “On the Move” mobile unit spent 2,000 hours visiting 230 sites including the Ironman triathlon, New Orleans Saints youth training camps and a wide variety of community events.

Truman Medical Centers was recently awarded the 2012 National Minority Quality Forum Booker T. Washington Award for leading the way toward a healthier Kansas City community through patient-centered and community-based programs that empower patients to make the best health care choices and become their own advocates for a healthier life. The Booker T. Washington Award recognizes individuals and organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion of wellness in minority communities.

MedStar St. Mary's Hospital Health Link's program offers a wide variety of classes and training to help people living with a chronic health condition-as well as their families and caregivers-improve their quality of life and navigate their health care. The "Living Well with Chronic Conditions" program is a central part of Health Link and helps people not only live with their condition, but live well.

Now in its sixth year, Scale Back Alabama is a free statewide weight-loss contest designed to encourage Alabamians to get healthy and to have fun while doing it.  It is a public awareness campaign hosted by Alabama's hospitals and the Alabama Department of Public Health, with support from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama. More than 7,500 teams are participating in the 2012 Scale Back Alabama program. Last year's campaign drew more than 33,000 people in almost every county with a cumulative reported weight loss of 143,309 pounds.

The Nassau-Suffolk (NY) Hospital Council, made up of Long Island’s not-for-profit and public hospitals, collects food to donate to the St. Hugh of Lincoln Food Pantry that provides hundreds of families in the local area with food and other staples. The hospitals do so with the goal of providing proper nutrition to residents and maintaining healthy communities.

The North Shore-LIJ Health System sponsored its first-ever walking challenge, the Walk to Paris. Fifteen thousand employees laced up their sneakers to compete for a free trip to Paris, France. The walk challenges employees to collaborate in teams of 10 to walk 7.2 million steps (the approximate length to Paris) in three months, or approximately 8,000 steps a day. The fitness challenge is one of many initiatives that the 15-hospital health system has rolled out to improve the health and wellness of its employees – including an interactive wellness website.

Effingham Hospital’s “Guys Night Out” was created to increase attendance atto Effingham Hospital’s annual prostate cancer screening event. As an incentive, an off-site provider location is transformed into a place where men gather to watch football’s greatest moments or old-time westerns, complete with “‘guy-friendly”’ snacks, while awaiting their free screenings. The program encourages survivors of prostate cancer to become spokespeople to convey the importance of early detection and treatment.

Northside Hospital’s “MothersFirst Program” is a valuable resource to women who are already pregnant or considering becoming pregnant. MothersFirst offers pertinent education, classes, support groups and services for women throughout the many stages of their childbearing years, from early pregnancy through early childhood. In fiscal year 2010, MothersFirst offered 1,065 classes; reaching 7,838 couples.

Delta Regional Medical Center holds the “Birth & Baby Fair,”, an educational fair, focused on childbirth and newborn child care information for new mothers and mothers-to-be.  Presentations by medical specialists are offered on topics from vaccinations, breastfeeding, birthing plans to “You’ve Brought Your Baby Home. Now What?” Delta Regional Medical Center saw a need to  and wanted to provide additional support and education to these patients and their mothers.

Elliot Hospital's WorkingWell Program  provides on-site wellness programming to New Hampshire employers and assists companies in developing a wellness culture. The program also provides on-site health screenings, counseling, information on risks and wellness strategies to manage these risks.

Delaware’s hospitals spent $92 million -a $42 million increase since Fiscal Year 2008 - on community benefit programs designed to create healthier lives in almost every corner of the State.

Carolinas HealthCare System is partnering with 12 YMCA branches to create synergy between health and wellness. A registered nurse staffs a CHS Health Center at the YMCAs, providing screenings, health fairs, classes and more, often at no charge. Local physicians now refer patients to the program, and the program helps many patients without a doctor establish a medical home. So far in 2011, the program has had 75,000 visits.

1n 2010 Centra offered free health fairs and screenings, support groups, community presentations, CPR training courses and mammography events that allowed them to reach more than 12,000 individuals in central Virginia.

A new report by Ernst & Young found that not-for-profit hospitals spend an average of 11.3 percent of their total expenses on benefits to their communities.

Along with other health agencies Illini Community Hospital created The Pike County Community Health Partnership to assess community health and wellness needs; to leverage the collective strength of multiple organizations addressing health and to coordinate resources to deal with scarcities and eliminate duplication of efforts.

Northwest Hospital's Domestic Violence (DOVE) Program provides 24/7 crisis intervention to victims of domestic violence in the emergency department, complete documentation of physical and psychological injuries, referrals to community and legal resources, as well as follow-up case management, support groups and counseling.

Parkview Health System's Community Nursing Program supports a staff of 13 nurses, a respiratory therapist and a full-time nursing leader who work with other local non-profit agencies to improve community health through school-based flu vaccine programs, asthma coalitions and other collaborative community efforts

Clarinda Regional Health Center has a Home for the Holidays program that offers free, round-trip transportation services from a care facility to a family gathering and back during the holiday season. The hospital volunteers its medical expertise and ability to transport medically needy or bedfast-care facility residents to what is a rare and/or sometimes last visit home. The service is available for any community resident within a 20-mile radius of the hospital, from the week of Thanksgiving through the last week of December.

Legacy Health’s Powerful Tools for Caregivers program is a six-week education program for family and friends who are caring for older adults suffering from stroke, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease or similar long-term conditions. Classes provide participants with the skills and confidence they need to better care for themselves while caring for others.

Elmore Medical Center's Center for Community Health (CCH) brings together community stakeholders in assessing unmet health care needs and exploring alternative approaches to health improvement. The Center focuses on health education and connecting local residents with resources. Key areas of need have been identified as alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness, nutrition, and obesity

Harlem Hospital Center's Hip Hop Stroke Program is conducted in collaboration with the National Stroke Association and uses music videos to teach young participants to recognize the warning signs of a stroke. Hip hop music provides an easy, yet entertaining method to teach stroke awareness to youth as well as promote lifelong healthy habits.

Grandview Medical Center sponsors DO-WOP (Diabetes and Obesity, Wellness Opportunities Program), a free program dedicated to improving the health, self-image and well-being of children who are overweight. The DO-WOP approach to care is holistic, combining medical expertise and diagnostic tools with nutrition and behavior education and dance exercise. Sessions are 12-weeks long and both child and adult must participate. An increasing percentage of participants are consistently lowering their body mass indexes.

Campbell County Memorial Hospital supports a program designed to reach sedentary children and help them find ways to exercise and eat better for the long term. The six-week ICAN class offers an array of entertaining games and approaches, and builds on current health topics the children are learning in the classroom through the Healthy Schools Initiative.

Norton Healthcare supports the Health Start Initiative, a program that provides case management, education and preventive health services to high-risk infants and their families. Norton's support allowed for an estimated 425 infants, toddlers and women to receive outreach and evaluation services, as well as health education and transportation to health care appointments.

Acadia Hospital and Spring Harbor Hospital in Maine are collaborating with community groups and a local high school to support the creation and production of a movie dealing with teen depression and anxiety. The goal is to address the stigma associated with mental health, encourage students to open up, express themselves and be accepting of others and to seek support in appropriate ways. The movie will be distributed for free to every high school in the state, along with a suggested teaching curriculum and other resources for schools, families and other groups.

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital's Good NEWS for a Better LIFE program improves seniors' health status through better education, fitness classes, transportation and stronger social support, helping less capable seniors continue to live in their homes.

Iowa hospitals continue to play a key role in the new Healthiest State Initiative by participating in Start Somewhere Walks which were held across Iowa last week. Start Somewhere Walks, were held in each of Iowa's 99 counties and several were hosted by Iowa hospitals

Maryland's hospitals are reaching out into their communities to address specific health care needs, and to make sure people who can't afford care still receive it. These and other efforts mean that Maryland's hospitals are providing more than $1 billion worth of benefits to the communities they serve.

Together with community partners, Jackson Hospital and Clinic offers free sports physicals to student athletes. Children receive free comprehensive sports physicals including screenings for height and weight; heart and lungs; vision, blood pressure, flexibility; and an examination by a physician to help parents and coaches ensure that students are healthy and can participate in athletic programs.

Good NEWS for a Better LIFE, a community outreach program of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, was designed to improve seniors' health status through better education, fitness classes, transportation and stronger social support.

Nanticoke Health Services created the Minutes Matter program to provide stroke education to patients and to the community at large and do so through hosting health events, speaking to various community groups and running print and radio advertisements. Over the past year, Nanticoke health care providers have attended or hosted nearly 20 health events related to stroke education; there are plans to continue to provide additional health education within the community and online.

Central DuPage Hospital (CDH) supports the ThinkFirst injury prevention program in Illinois. In the last school year, the CDH Injury Prevention team presented injury prevention programs to more than 11,500 students in fourth through twelfth grades. Unique to this chapter, when first graders complete the education program, they are measured and fit with a brand new free bike helmet. Approximately 15,000 area students heard ThinkFirst's important messages about using their mind to protect their bodies.

Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, New York works with partners and area employers to bring community members and local employees the "It's All About ME" Diabetes Program, based on the concept of Move more, Eat right/less. The program encourages participants to make lifestyle changes to prevent diabetes.

St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Edgewood, KY has partnered with 49 organizations - including schools, physicians, churches, businesses, county and state health departments - to create the Northern Kentucky Women's Cardiovascular Assessment, Risk Reduction and Education (CARE) Collaborative. The CARE Collaborative is driven by its mission to educate the community and counter the high occurrences of cardiovascular disease in the state.

To fight childhood obesity, Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, IL partners with the local school district - which serves more than 11,000 students - local parks, area universities, the YMCA and others to provide the Healthy Kids Club Initiative. The initiative targets families in areas where more than 50 percent of children live in poverty. The areas are generally both ethnically and racially diverse. The focus of the initiative is to teach proper nutrition and exercise through three unique after-school programs.

Baton Rouge-based Woman's Hospital operates a Mobile Mammography Coach that provides screening for women at 105 locations throughout a 15-parish area. Staffed by two technologists, a receptionist and a driver, the coach sees approximately 5,800 patients and diagnoses 25 to 30 cancers each year that may have gone undiscovered. The Woman's Mobile Mammography Coach has been successful in reaching underserved women and collaborating with community-based organizations to reduce geographic and financial barriers to cancer care.

In response to growing needs of the older adult population - from battling depression and prescription drug addictions to decreasing falls and the incidence of chronic disease - Chilton Memorial Hospital in Pompton Plains, N.J. developed a free health and wellness program for adults age 50 and over. Working with numerous collaborative partners, almost 40,000 individuals participate in the program, receiving a quarterly newsletter that lists available classes, groups, lectures and workshops.

Nearly 10,000 Ohio children have new tools to combat the obesity epidemic, thanks to creative approaches by four Ohio hospitals that have teamed up with local schools, community organizations and other businesses to undertake childhood obesity reduction programs.

The WEPAC Hoops for Hope Weekend is a collaborative effort between five southwest Kansas communities to increase awareness about women's health while raising money to help prevent breast cancer and other diseases from spreading. Ashland Health Center and Comanche County Hospital put on this annual event with 90% of the proceeds going to pay for mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies for women in those five small towns.

Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, Kansas Summer Skin Safety program started as an effort to prevent childhood sunburns. The hospital teamed up with the cities of Pittsburg and Frontenac to distribute sunscreen at local pools during "Summer Safety in the Sun" events and during the annual Farm Show.

The New Moms Network is a free service of the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Birthing Center. Moms meet weekly for 1.5 hours; programs range from handling a crying baby to immunizations to fire safety. New moms network and support each other, with community experts providing education each week.

Greenville Hospital System in South Carolina launched a Diabetes prevention initiative called "Small Steps to a Healthy Change" to help reduce the number of diabetes cases in the county.

Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg, VA created “Toward No Tobacco”, a two-week evidence-based tobacco prevention class for seventh- graders in the state's two largest agricultural counties.

Case Study: The Nebraska Medical Center - Senior ASSIST Program, Omaha, Nebraska

Tucson Medical Center gives away safety equipment including bicycle helmets and car seats as a way to improve community health. They also provide a community resource center to promote healthy aging for seniors.

Case Study: Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center - Avera Family Wellness Program, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Click here to learn how hospitals are caring for their communities and promoting community health.