Stay healthy, Save millions!
That’s the mantra of many large corporations as they move into aggressive prevention, wellness and chronic disease management programs, often through on-site clinics. But how do you measure success?
At Serigraph, we decided to take a look at the number of hospital admissions per 1000 lives as a metric. After all, hospitals are expensive and dangerous places. You don’t want to be there.
Early returns suggest that the concerted effort of employees and the company is paying off. We had 54 admissions per 1000 lives in 2009, about the same as the year before.
That compares to an average of 60 over the last 8 years and a high point of 71.
Hospital bills can be $5000 a day or more, so this is no small matter
One company’s short track record doesn’t make a conclusive case for investing in employee health, but I sure like our latest numbers. Fewer catastrophic cases was our goal when we ventured into wellness and prevention 15 years ago and to an on-site clinic in 2004.
The lower number of admissions squares up with some of our other metrics, like a three-point drop in average blood pressure over the last eight years and a drop in average cholesterol from 207 to 193.
In short, you can’t manage health costs if you don’t mange health.
