Here’s the press release from Mission Health:
Plans to Offer Platform to Local Employers Later This Year
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (July 9, 2014) – Mission Health has launched MyHealthyLifeTM WellConnect, a highly interactive wellness platform that is focused on connecting the western North Carolina region to help our community get well, stay well and be well. MyHealthyLifeTM WellConnect provides wellness services and health management support to improve employee health and engagement, enhance productivity, help lower the costs of healthcare, and improve rates of absenteeism, presenteeism and disability.
“As western North Carolina’s own national Top 15 Health System, Mission Health is taking the lead in population health management,” said Kathy Bumgarner, Mission Health Vice President of Total Rewards. “We believe this journey starts with our own employees, making sure we have the right wellness tools and resources in place to in turn make them available to the wider employer community.”
Today’s launch focuses on nearly 5,000 of Mission Health’s own staff members, and by September will expand to the more than 8,000 eligible employees throughout Mission Health. Mission will make this same platform available to other local employers later this year.
“Mission Health understands that having healthier caregivers translates to improved patient care and better employee productivity,” said Marc B. Westle, DO, Mission Health Senior Vice President of Innovation. “An investment in employees’ wellness improves health, productivity and staff engagement, so in turn it saves the employer money. Mission wants to be a model for population health management and employer wellness services.”
MyHealthyLifeTM WellConnect features an engaging, personalized web portal accessible via computer, tablet and smartphone app. A Personal Health Assessment questionnaire identifies risk factors and provides related education to help participants understand identified risks. Participants can then use this report in health management conversations with their physicians. Online educational content and tracking tools focus on a broad range of wellness topics, including exercise, nutrition, healthy weight management, disease management, smoking cessation and more. In addition, the web portal offers fun and engaging wellness trackers and incentive campaigns that can tie incentives to points and/or desired wellness outcomes and support both participant and employer wellness goals.
Program participants may purchase a personal fitness tracker, the FitLinxx Pebble®, which tracks a wide range of activities including walking, running, elliptical, biking, swimming and more. This tracker automatically transmits participant activity data via offload locations and/or a personal SyncPoint. SyncPoints are already available in most Mission Health campus buildings and all western North Carolina YMCA locations, with future plans to locate more SyncPoints in high traffic areas around the region.
For more information about MyHealthyLifeTM WellConnect contact Anna Walz, Mission Health Director of Wellness, at 828-213-3588 or anna.walz@msj.org.
About Mission Health
Mission Health, based in Asheville, North Carolina, is the state’s sixth-largest health system and the region’s only not-for-profit, independent community hospital system governed and managed exclusively in western North Carolina. Mission Health has been recognized as one of the nation’s Top 15 Health Systems 2012-2014 by Truven Health Analytics, formerly Thomson Reuters. Mission Health is the only medium-sized health system to receive this recognition three years in a row, and the only health system in North Carolina to achieve that distinction.
Mission Health, which traces its roots in the region back to 1885, operates six hospitals, numerous outpatient and surgery centers, post-acute care provider CarePartners, and the region’s only dedicated Level II trauma center. Its medical staff consists of more than 1,000 physicians and is certified in more than 50 medical specialties and sub-specialties. Mission Health has seven Centers of Excellence: Cancer, Heart, Mission Children’s Hospital, Neurosciences, Orthopedics, Trauma and Women’s Health. Mission Hospital, located in Asheville, is the system’s flagship hospital and is licensed for 795 beds. It is the regional referral center for tertiary and quaternary care. It also includes Mission Children’s Hospital – the region’s only children’s hospital. Other Mission Health member hospitals include Angel Medical Center in Franklin, Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine, Highlands-Cashiers Hospital in Highlands, McDowell Hospital in Marion and Transylvania Regional Hospital in Brevard. With approximately 10,600 employees and 2,000 volunteers, Mission Health is dedicated to improving the health and wellness of the people of western North Carolina. For more information, please visit mission-health.org or @MissionHealthNC.
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