Integrating Employee Health

The American workforce is changing, creating new challenges for employers to provide occupational health services to meet the needs of employees. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) workforce is highly skilled and competitive and employees frequently work under intense pressure to ensure mission success. The Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer at NASA requested that the Institute of Medicine review its occupational health programs, assess employee awareness of and attitude toward those programs, recommend options for future worksite preventive health programs, and ways to evaluate their effectiveness. The committee's findings show that although NASA has a history of being forward-looking in designing and improving health and wellness programs, there is a need to move from a traditional occupational health model to an integrated, employee-centered program that could serve as a national model for both public and private employers to emulate and improve the health and performance of their workforces.

The authors describe current Department of Defense safety and occupational health programs and health information systems, as well as employee health programs outside of DoD to provide a foundation for considering a more integrated Department of Defense employee health program.

The American workforce is changing, creating new challenges for employers to provide occupational health services to meet the needs of employees. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) workforce is highly skilled and competitive and employees frequently work under intense pressure to ensure mission success. The Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer at NASA requested that the Institute of Medicine review its occupational health programs, assess employee awareness of and attitude toward those programs, recommend options for future worksite preventive health programs, and ways to evaluate their effectiveness. The committee's findings show that although NASA has a history of being forward-looking in designing and improving health and wellness programs, there is a need to move from a traditional occupational health model to an integrated, employee-centered program that could serve as a national model for both public and private employers to emulate and improve the health and performance of their workforces.

This book presents a comprehensive cross-section of experienced professionals who discuss their efforts to fully integrate employee assistance, work/life, and wellness services.

DoD is a unique and immense employer that is committed to providing medical care and meeting the safety and occupation health needs of its workforce. Historically, DoD has approached occupational health and safety as issues largely separate from other aspects of employee health. However, innovative thinking in recent years has coalesced around the idea of integrating all activities related to employee health. Given its large active duty workforce plus the large number of diverse work sites and the widely varying risks of military duty, DoD has growing interest in exploring whether integration of existing DoD programs related to employee health could improve the health and wellness of DoD's active duty service members and also result in other benefits for DoD (e.g., increased productivity).

"If the Department of Defense (DoD) moves toward a more integrated employee health system, a foundation of information about the current system and requisite elements for such integration will be needed. The authors reviewed the research literature and DoD policy documents and interviewed DoD personnel to make several observations about the current state of safety and occupational health (SOH) arrangements in DoD. Currently, SOH policy cuts across several organizations at high levels in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and SOH programs are implemented by each of the military services. Recently, leadership attention has focused on safety, mostly apart from occupational health, as a separate priority. DoD and the services have made efforts to increase coordination, including both high-level formal councils and through informal relationships among SOH practitioners. Health promotion and wellness have received considerable attention within DoD through periodic health assessments and educational programs, yet these areas have not benefited from the same increased coordination. As DoD contemplates a more integrated approach, the authors considered what DoD might learn from civilian experience with integrating employee health activities. To address this, the authors reviewed civilian models of integration to identify promising approaches and practices that might inform DoD efforts. The review of activities related to employee health in DoD -- including industrial hygiene, safety, health promotion and wellness, occupational health, and its relatively mature health information technology infrastructure -- indicates that there might be little need for DoD to introduce new programs but more need to make use of the information generated by the existing programs in a more coordinated, integrated manner." -- provided by publisher.

This book introduces the concept of ‘healthy healthcare’ and posits that this new concept is necessary in light of a shortage of healthcare staff in the near future. Healthy healthcare implies that healthcare systems are designed, managed and financed in balance with the available resources to improve workers’ health and performance. Ultimately, a balanced perspective taking into account the patient, the staff and the complex healthcare system will lead to a more resource-efficient delivery of high-quality healthcare services. The book synthesizes evidence-based practice and research on the links between healthcare services, employee health and wellbeing, and quality of healthcare from an interdisciplinary perspective. Written by leading experts in this rapidly expanding field of inquiry, this is the first book ever compiled on the subject with such scope and breadth. It discusses how to conduct interventions and research on healthy healthcare with different populations and settings. The chapters critically examine the links between these pillars; and identify research gaps in both methodology and content from the perspectives of psychology, medicine, nursing, economy, law, technology, management and more. This innovative book is of interest to researchers and students of health sciences, public health, health economics and allied disciplines, as well as to stakeholders in the healthcare industry. Chapter 24 of this book is available open access under a CC-By NC-ND 4.0 license at link.springer.com

A smarter framework for designing more effective workplacewellness programs Workplace Wellness That Works provides a freshperspective on how to promote employee well-being in the workplace.In addressing the interconnectivity between wellness andorganizational culture, this book shows you how to integratewellness into your existing employee development strategy in morecreative, humane, and effective ways. Based on the latest researchand backed by real-world examples and case studies, this guideprovides employers with the tools they need to start making adifference in their employees' health and happiness, and promotingan overall culture of well-being throughout the organization.You'll find concrete, actionable advice for tackling the massiveobstacle of behavioral change, and learn how to design andimplement an approach that can most benefit your organization. Promoting wellness is a good idea. Giving employees theinspiration and tools they need to make changes in their lifestylesis a great idea. But the billion-dollar question is: what dothey want, what do they need, and how do we implement programs tohelp them without causing more harm than good? WorkplaceWellness That Works shows you how to assess your organization'sneeds and craft a plan that actually benefits employees. Build an effective platform for well-being Empower employees to make better choices Design and deliver the strategy that your organizationneeds Drive quantifiable change through more creativeimplementation Today's worksite wellness industry represents a miasma ofcompeting trends, making it nearly impossible to come away withtangible solutions for real-world implementation. Harnessing abroader learning and development framework, Workplace WellnessThat Works skips the fads and shows you how to design a smarterstrategy that truly makes a difference in employees'lives—and your company's bottom line.