St. Joseph Health wins Healthiest Companies in the North Bay award
NORTH BAY – With three hospitals in Napa and Sonoma Counties, including two wellness and fitness centers located at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa and near Petaluma Valley Hospital, St. Joseph Health takes a comprehensive approach to patient, employee and community health spanning a suite of easy-to-use tools and resources, including employee discounts applied toward fitness center memberships.
“Our core goals encompass bringing people together, providing compassionate care, while promoting health improvement and creating the healthiest communities in the process,” said Maracie Wilson, system director for employee well-being. “Our aim is less on traditional definitions of wellness, but rather on the upstream drivers affecting one’s overall health and well-being.”
Choose Well™, St. Joseph Health’s employee well-being benefit, offered through a partnership with Virgin Pulse and its special mobile app, empowers employees to map out personal paths to health while building good lifestyle habits across all domains of well-being.
Wilson said Choose Well features, shown on the organization’s website (www.sjhschoosewell.org), are available on the app, as well as tutorials/videos on cooking healthy meals and having fun in the kitchen with Monj’s On Demand Cooking Demos.
This voluntary web-based benefit program has four progressive levels that can be completed within the program year (currently ending April 30, 2017) to earn points and rewards. Participants can define their own personal path in the program. That path usually begins with a health risk assessment, biometric screening, and by submitting a primary care visit form.
Choose Well tools and resources address key areas, such as nutrition, sleep, mental focus and physical activity, as well as offering positive feedback, education and friendly competition among up to 10 friends, family members or co-workers to keep participants motivated.
Smart phones double as pedometers to count steps, and there are over 100 healthy habit monitors to help relieve stress, improve relationships and increase productivity. For those working at desks, there are stretching, movement and stair walking suggestions as well as daily health reminders.
Employees are able to redeem valuable reward earnings as they reach each level of activity completion by turning points into cash, gift cards or tracking devices.
The Life Learning Center across the street from St. Joseph Health’s Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital (open to the public for $10/month) offers free health classes, such as strength training and meditation.
