North Bay Business Journal

JDSU: Finding fitness, incentives on Route 66, ‘Health Trails’

SANTA ROSA – Offering ways to enable success-driven employees achieve their personal best is what JDSU is about. Supporting health programs is one approach to making the employer-employee relationship a win-win situation.

GCX: When the boss is a coach, wellness is serious business

PETALUMA – When the president of the company is also a football coach at Marin Catholic High School, you can be sure that he encourages employees to tone up and stay active both on and off the job. Several GCX managers attended Terra Linda High School at the same time, played in basketball leagues and participated in 10K runs, so there is a legacy of athleticism in a firm that now places strong emphasis on weight loss and fitness.

St. Joseph Health: Learning to ‘Choose Well’

St. Joseph Health System, the second largest private employer in Sonoma County with over 2,400 employees, offers wellness options for employees through its Choose Well program, which has a 40 percent employee participation rate — meaning more than 900 employees are embracing the wellness concept.

Redwood Regional Medical Group: Health care professionals do as they say

It may seem obvious that a group of 40-plus physicians and the staff — totaling some 300 nurse practitioners, oncology nurses, technologists and support staff — would practice the healthy lifestyle they encourage for their patients. Now its an official program.

EPIC insurance: ‘If we were any healthier, we’d be broccoli’

The San Mateo-based brokerage opened the Petaluma branch last July. With 265 employees across the company — and about 20 in the North Bay — the company boasts an 80 percent participation rate in its two-year old employee wellness program.

Kaiser opens pediatrics unit in Rohnert Park

ROHNERT PARK — Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa Medical Center recently expanded its pediatrics department to its medical offices at 5900 State Farm Dr. in Rohnert Park.

Q&A: Mike Purvis, Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa

Mike Purvis is the chief administrative officer for Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, which will soon be relocated from the aging Chanate facility, the former county-run Community Hospital, to a brand new, $284 million medical campus next to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.

Mr. Purvis will be a panelist at the Business Journal’s health care conference on Nov. 30, where he will discuss the new hospital and how it will impact Sonoma County.

Napa County planning $76 million health and human services project

NAPA –Napa County is moving along its plan to renovate the aging Health and Human Services Agency Department, a $76 million project that will rebuild the Old Sonoma Road campus with phased development over a span of 20 years.

Business news: Week of Nov. 21, 2011

Brief news about north San Francisco Bay area companies: RPM Mortgage opens San Rafael branch; Speedpro Imaging-Marin starts vinyl banner recycling; Marin General Hospital Foundation raises $340,000 for Spine & Brain Institute; Calix customer Vermont Telephone Company deplys optical network terminals; Russian River Valley wineries form tasting room network Taste Route 116

Food bank receives $800,000 diabetes grant

The Redwood Empire Food Bank, part of the Feeding America network of food banks, today marked World Diabetes Day by announcing an $800,000 grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to help communities and populations disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes.

Marin General gets $1 million donation to launch outpatient diabetes center

GREENBRAE — Marin General Hospital today announced that it will open an outpatient diabetes center next year, funded by a $1 million donation from Kentfield resident Bruce Baden, diagnosed with type I diabetes himself.

Gains seen for both parties in possible Palm pact

The Palm Drive Healthcare District’s recent vote to begin exclusive negotiations for affiliating with Marin General Hospital has the potential to help the long-struggling Sebastopol hospital stabilize, while creating an expansive network of alliances between numerous district hospitals across the North Bay that might otherwise struggle for survival.

Corporate wellness taking center stage

NORTH BAY — As wellness emerges as a key business strategy in containing health care costs, questions often arise on what, exactly, the term means — what works for one company or one industry won’t necessarily work for another, and how do you define wellness to employees? More importantly, how do you get a staff to fully buy-in to the concept?

Scott Setterlund: Getting to that 12-to-1 return on wellness

Scott Setterlund, employer relations specialist for Sutter Health, has been promoting wellness for over 20 years. In his current role, Mr. Setterlund is responsible for incorporating wellness and work site strategies for mid size to large employers, for all of Sutter’s network in San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties, a region that includes hospitals as well as the Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation.

Jill Kinney: Health clubs can play an even larger role in wellness

Jill Kinney, the founder and of Club One, Inc. and the managing director of Clubsource, began working in corporate wellness in 1979, for a Marin County cardiologist who she said decided to take a proactive approach to health, particularly executives. She was chief operating officer of Western Athletic Clubs for eight years before she started Club One.

Marin-Sonoma IPA, Health Net offering Medicare Advantage plan

SONOMA COUNTY — The Marin-Sonoma IPA has joined with Health Net to provide Medicare Advantage plans for Sonoma County seniors in the wake of a coverage agreement between Sutter Health and UnitedHealthcare.

Healthiest Companies to be recognized at Nov. 30 conference

NORTH BAY — The Business Journal’s inaugural Healthiest Companies Recognition Awards will be presented to 14 companies at its Health Care Conference.

Dr. David Sobel: Prescription for happiness (and health)

Let’s say there’s a new medication that could make you live longer, feel more positive, and improve your overall quality of life. It’s an elixir that doesn’t have side effects. It’s effective. And it doesn’t cost a penny. It’s out there. Really.

Gary Greensweig: Moving from ‘episodic’ to ‘longitudinal’ care

Family practice physician Dr. Gary Greensweig is currently the chief medical officer for St. Jospeh Health System-Sonoma County, overseeing medical operations at Santa Rosa Memorial and Petaluma Valley hospitals, as well as numerous outpatient and mobile clinics. He has practiced as a primary care physician in Santa Rosa since 1979.

Palm Drive leans toward Marin General affiliation

SEBASTOPOL — The Palm Drive Healthcare District last night chose to advance affiliation talks with Marin General Hospital over four other proposals, a move that came earlier than expected.