St. John's Medical Center - Wellness Works

What is it?

Wellness Works is a worksite wellness program that promotes stress reduction, healthy eating, physical activity and behavior change. Primary objectives are (1) reward employees already making healthy lifestyle choices; (2) encourage medium- and high-risk employees to make positive lifestyle changes; and (3) establish a culture of wellness throughout the workplace.

Who is it for?

Employees of the Medical Center, the Teton County School District and Teton Science Schools (approximately 1,300 individuals).

Why do they do it?

Escalating health care costs have become a primary concern for many employers. With preventable illness accounting for 80 percent of all health care expenditures, the best hope for reversing this trend is to focus on disease prevention.

Impact

Hospital employees collectively have lost nearly 2,000 pounds, the percentage of employees with no risk factors increased from 20.0 percent to 28.3 percent and the percentage of employees reporting stress has dropped from 27.5 percent to 16.7 percent.

Contact: Julia Heemstra
Director, Wellness Department
Telephone: 307-739-7244
Email: jheemstra@tetonhospital.org