Hospitals as Employers: Developing a Culture of Health

William G. Bithoney, MD, National Medical Leader, Thomson Reuters Healthcare, and former interim president and CEO, COO and CMO at Sisters of Providence Health System/Mercy Medical Center, Springfield, MA. Hospital employees are at higher risk for illness than other workers. They utilize 18% more hospital days and have 22% more ED visits. Overall they incur 10% higher costs than other similarly aged workers and have 8% higher “health risk scores”. Hospital employees’ healthcare costs are approximately 10% higher than comparisands. In spite of this, a relatively small number of hospitals have developed broad spectrum employee health programs. This talk reviews some of the strategies for successful health intervention for hospital employees including utilization review, population health management and messaging, disease management and other strategies necessary to develop a Culture of Health. Such strategies may ultimately lead hospitals to realize significant cost savings by enrolling their own hospital employees in a hospital-directed Accountable Care Organization.