DEACONESS HOSPITAL RECEIVES FIVE STAR AWARD FROM THE WELLNESS COUNCIL OF INDIANA

 Evansville, IN – The Indiana Wellness Council has named Deaconess Hospital as a winner of its Five Star Award for creating a corporate culture that supports employee wellness.

The Indiana Wellness Council has established the AchieveWELL Certification Awards Program. This program establishes a blueprint that helps employers create initiatives that encourage and support employee health through wellness programs at the worksite. The program provides a clear understanding of the necessary components of successful worksite wellness programs and recognizes excellence in the field of health promotion.

The AchieveWELL Wellness Certification is divided into three levels: Three Star Award, Four Star Award and Five Star Award. Each level provides a set of standards to be achieved before a worksite can qualify for the award.

Representative activities of winning organization include programming that addresses high risk or disease management issues, five physical activities for employees, evidence of community involvement, and documentation of a safety program or initiative.

Laughter is Great Medicine

Dr. William Fry of Stanford University Medical School likened laughter to a form of physical exercise.  It’s like jogging on the inside.  It lowers your blood pressure and heart rate, improves lung capacity, massages internal organs, increases memory and alertness, reduces pain, improves digestion, and lowers the stress hormones, cortisol and adrenalin.  It’s good for the muscles involved in laughter, your chest and abdomen, and it exercises those muscles not involved.  Dr. Fry said that laughing 100-200 times per day is the cardiovascular equivalent of rowing for 10 minutes.  I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather laugh than row.

Have you made the healthiest choice the easiest choice?

Establishing an environment at work where selecting the healthier choice is the easier choice is cost effective and simple.  Provide more diet options in your vending machines, make water and soda the same price (or make water less expensive), make safety and ergonomics a top priority, encourage your employees to take a 2 minute stretch break every hour, when answering the phone – have them stand up, create periods in the day or week that encourages fun.  Building a supportive work environment of health will result in healthier and more alert employees.