+ Strategy+Business on healthcare's retail solution

One of the most exciting and potentially game-changing developments in the world of healthcare is the rise of the retail mini-clinic, as pioneered by Wal-Mart, MinuteClinics, and other chains. Strategy+Business published an excellent overview of retail as the new face of healthcare, and the benefits it could offer for consumers, providers, and society in general. It's a little on the long side, but if this is something you're interested in, it's definitely worth spending the time to read it.

Imagine a future in which the health-care system provides consumers high-quality care in a variety of convenient forms at competitive prices. In this vision, insurers, employers, and governments offer consumers financial incentives to take better care of themselves — to exercise, eat right, stop smoking, and follow treatment regimens for chronic problems such as asthma and diabetes. The system encourages consumers to plan for the health-care needs they can anticipate (i.e., nonemergencies) by “shopping” for products and services much as they do for a new car; consumers make informed decisions based on readily available reports on quality, service, and price. Providers and product manufacturers compete for different segments of the market using a variety of channels, formats, and business models. And consumers confused by the profusion of offerings can turn to agents who help them design the most suitable health-care programs for themselves and their families. Such a robust retail health-care market is more than a vision; it is a real possibility.

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+ Wellness in the Workplace: An Interview FRCH's Sarah Phillips

FRCH Design Worldwide is an international architecture, interior and graphic design firm serving some of the world’s most recognized brands in the retail and hospitality markets. Recently they’ve instituted FRCH Fit, a wellness program designed to help their 275 employees be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy. We’re excited to talk with Sarah Phillips to learn more about the program.

First of all, tell us a little about FRCH Fit and what inspired you to start the program.
Corporate wellness programs are very popular. Of course, being in HR, we see insurance costs going up and employee absenteeism on the rise. So we started a wellness program to try and combat all of these things. And Its definitely about keeping the employees healthy, but not just physically healthy. We plan to offer a new initiative each quarter focusing on a different type of wellness. Our first two will focus on physical fitness and nutrition, but we also want to spend some time working on emotional wellness and stress management, financial stability and planning, and community involvement. We want a well-rounded approach. We like the name FRCH Fit because we can tailor the name to what type of fitness we’re looking at for a quarter – Financially Fit, Emotionally Fit, etc.

What’s the reaction been so far?
Since our kickoff on October 19th, the reaction has been really good. I’ve seen people wearing the pedometers we gave out and everyone seems interested. Many people have told me, “We needed this” or “I’m glad to see this.” We had a lot more people interested in being on the committee than we could take on.

One of the big challenges with wellness programs is that they can be hard to measure. How will you know when the program is successful?
Hopefully we can see our insurance costs go down and less sick days used. We also hope to offer individual health assessments, blood testing, cholesterol tests, etc. These types of results FRCH would not see, they’re just for the individual. Hopefully they can use their results to keep an eye on their personal goals or identify potential problems.

Are there any risks or drawbacks to having a wellness program?
We plan to keep our initiatives manageable and encourage small steps to change, so we don’t anticipate any risks. For example, our first initiative was to get everyone thinking about physical fitness, so we gave every employee a water bottle and pedometer, and our literature included some walking routes downtown. Just walking around at lunchtime could help get your blood pumping and clear your mind. But I’d advise anyone with serious health issues or conditions to see their physician with any concerns about starting a workout program.

This pedometer is a nice piece of product design. Its just a detail, but its important for a creative company to have a nice looking product for it’s employees.
We definitely took that into account. Everyone here is so creative and so visual that we knew if it didn’t look nice it would be ignored. Branding is one of the services our firm provides, so we knew how important it was to create and identity around the wellness committee. It needed to have a sharp look and I think it turned out nicely.

Why do you think the trend in health and wellness is so prevalent now?
Some of it still comes back to the bottom line and reducing costs and absenteeism. But we also want to keep people happy and provide people with resources to encourage a healthy lifestyle. Nowadays people get so busy and are always multitasking, and as a firm we want to make things easier for them. A lot of people may want to stay healthy but don’t know how or don’t feel they have the time. Cooking a healthy dinner after work is a daunting task for some, but if we provide “quick & easy” recipes it might be more manageable. Maybe you don’t have time to schedule an appointment for a flu shot, so we brought a nurse in to do them on-site. Again, just some manageable tools and tips to help point people in the right direction.

So would you say that you see it as your responsibility to help?
I think so, that’s fair to say. We think it’s a smart business decision.

How do you show people that this program isn’t just lip service to a current trend?
I think we have to continue to find resources and new information to share. Just introducing one idea and leaving it alone won’t give the program success. We plan to get a site up on our intranet that can keep people involved with a lot of revolving content – different recipes, neat links, and other resources. We definitely don’t want to just throw these pedometers at everyone and not bring it up again for a couple months until our next initiative. We don’t want to throw it in anyone’s face but we want to try and keep information available to them. We’ve also encouraged the employees to email our committee with any ideas or feedback, so hopefully that will help keep people engaged and interested.

Do you have any advice for our readers who are interested in creating their own wellness program?
There are a ton of great resources and tools online that help you come up with ideas and get started. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend, you can get creative. With Wellness Programs becoming a trend, you can find free or inexpensive offerings. Local gyms will be happy to partner with you to offer discounted rates to your employees. Most restaurants have healthy menu options, you could research the local lunch spots and come up with suggestions on what to order. Organize an exercise group to walk or bike after work. And you can’t do it alone! We have a great committee that works on this, with a representative from each of our studios and departments. That helps us spread our message and brings a lot of different ideas to the table.

Thanks for talking with us, Sarah. It was great to learn about FRCH Fit and how you’re helping your employees lead healthier lives.
Thank you.

+ Be The Change: An interview with One Planet, One Solution

At the American Massage Therapy Association 2007 National Convention in Cincinnati, TGG spoke with Alexandra Patrick-Blaguski and Monica Pasinata-Forchielli about massage therapy as related to Health and Wellness. Alex and Monica are massage therapists associated with OnePlanetOneSolution.com in Hamilton, Ontario.
ONE - One Planet One Solution is a global oriented spa products and services provider offering customized, sustainable, and socially responsible solutions.

Describe the virtues and benefits of your professional focus in Massage Therapy as related to the domain of Health and Wellness

Alex: We are in a natural business, we heal with our hands. Since Massage therapy is considered alternative, providing alternative products is a perfect fit for our efforts in wanting to make a change. It’s everything we are about, taking it to a new level of support.

Monica: We are all about natural alternatives for Health and Wellness. No chemicals, that includes the products we sell.

There is a perception is that Massage Therapy is expensive, perhaps indulgent and prohibitive to the general public. How do you, as a Wellness provider, tell the value story?

Alex: Many people actually have a hard time relaxing. You can be healed naturally with touch. Doctors are quick to write prescriptions for medications. You may have a sore back and take muscle relaxers, but after the medication wears off the problem is still there. I think massage as alternate physiotherapy tends to heal some things faster and better. Not every therapy works for everybody.

Regarding ONE’s products, our job is to educate our customers about what we are doing and why we believe it is important. We are not just green washing or being trendy. People are becoming more aware and want to understand why things like socially conscious, fair trade and sustainable products matter.

Monica: The value of massage therapy is that it provides treatment for many things such as relaxation, increasing circulation and relieving pain. There is emotional relief as well. What happens in massage therapy is that people like to talk to you during treatments; someone is actually listening to them for an hour.

Anything worth doing takes time, effort and knowledge. How did you get here and why are you doing this?

Monica: After lot of education I wanted to get into alternative medicine. I’m not a big believer in allopathic medicine. I don’t believe in drug pushing, that really bothers me.

Alex: We heal with our hands. I’ve been doing this for 4 years. I believe in it, I feel like I am doing my part.

photo credit: Ruben Joye

http://www.oneplanetonesolution.com