Tracking the Market Performance of Companies That Integrate a Culture of Health and Safety: An Assessment of Corporate Health Achievement Award Applicants.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the hypothesis that stock market performance of companies achieving high scores on either health or safety in the Corporate Health Achievement Award (CHAA) process will be superior to average index performance. METHODS: The stock market performance of portfolios of CHAA winners was examined under six different scenarios using simulation and past market performance in tests of association framed to inform the investor community. RESULTS: CHAA portfolios out-performed the S&P average on all tests. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to the growing evidence that a healthy and safe workforce correlates with a company's performance and its ability to provide positive returns to shareholders. It advances the idea that a proven set of health and safety metrics based on the CHAA evaluation process merits inclusion with existing measures for market valuation.

Integrating health and safety in the workplace: how closely aligning health and safety strategies can yield measurable benefits.

OBJECTIVE: To better understand how integrating health and safety strategies in the workplace has evolved and establish a replicable, scalable framework for advancing the concept with a system of health and safety metrics, modeled after the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. METHODS: Seven leading national and international programs aimed at creating a culture of health and safety in the workplace were compared and contrasted. RESULTS: A list of forty variables was selected, making it clear there is a wide variety of approaches to integration of health and safety in the workplace. CONCLUSION: Depending on how well developed the culture of health and safety is within a company, there are unique routes to operationalize and institutionalize the integration of health and safety strategies to achieve measurable benefits to enhance the overall health and well-being of workers, their families, and the community.

Medical evacuations from oil rigs off the Gulf Coast of the United States from 2008 to 2012: reasons and cost implications.

OBJECTIVE: To identify reasons for air medical evacuations from oil rigs/platforms. METHODS: Retrospective review of data of medical calls from 102 rigs/platforms in the US Gulf Coast from 2008 through 2012 with specific analysis of medevacs. RESULTS: On average, 1609 total calls per year relating to illness or injury on the 102 oil rigs/platforms with 4% to 7% requiring medical air evacuation. On average, 77% of medevacs were for nonoccupational medical injury or illness. CONCLUSIONS: Illness, not occupational injuries, is identified as the major reason for medical evacuations from oil rigs. Heart disease is the leading cause of chronic health conditions resulting in a medevac.

The link between workforce health and safety and the health of the bottom line: tracking market performance of companies that nurture a "culture of health".

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that comprehensive efforts to reduce a workforce's health and safety risks can be associated with a company's stock market performance. METHODS: Stock market performance of Corporate Health Achievement Award winners was tracked under four different scenarios using simulation and past market performance. RESULTS: A portfolio of companies recognized as award winning for their approach to the health and safety of their workforce outperformed the market. Evidence seems to support that building cultures of health and safety provides a competitive advantage in the marketplace. This research may have also identified an association between companies that focus on health and safety and companies that manage other aspects of their business equally well. CONCLUSIONS: Companies that build a culture of health by focusing on the well-being and safety of their workforce yield greater value for their investors.

Advancing workplace health protection and promotion for an aging workforce.

OBJECTIVE: To explore issues related to the aging workforce, including barriers to integrating health protection and promotion programs, and provide recommendations for best practices to maximize contributions by aging workers. METHODS: Workgroups reviewed literature and case studies to develop consensus statements and recommendations for a national approach to issues related to older workers. RESULTS: Consensus statements and actions steps were identified for each of the Summit goals and call-to-action statements were developed. CONCLUSIONS: A national dialogue to build awareness of integrated health protection and promotion for the aging workforce is needed. Workers will benefit from improved health and performance; employers will realize a more engaged and productive workforce; and the nation will gain a vital, competitive workforce.

Optimizing health care delivery by integrating workplaces, homes, and communities: how occupational and environmental medicine can serve as a vital connecting link between accountable care organizations and the patient-centered medical home.

In recent years, the health care reform discussion in the United States has focused increasingly on the dual goals of cost-effective delivery and better patient outcomes. A number of new conceptual models for health care have been advanced to achieve these goals, including two that are well along in terms of practical development and implementation-the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) and accountable care organizations (ACOs). At the core of these two emerging concepts is a new emphasis on encouraging physicians, hospitals, and other health care stakeholders to work more closely together to better coordinate patient care through integrated goals and data sharing and to create team-based approaches that give a greater role to patients in health care decision-making. This approach aims to achieve better health outcomes at lower cost. The PCMH model emphasizes the central role of primary care and facilitation of partnerships between patient, physician, family, and other caregivers, and integrates this care along a spectrum that includes hospitals, specialty care, and nursing homes. Accountable care organizations make physicians and hospitals more accountable in the care system, emphasizing organizational integration and efficiencies coupled with outcome-oriented, performance-based medical strategies to improve the health of populations. The ACO model is meant to improve the value of health care services, controlling costs while improving quality as defined by outcomes, safety, and patient experience. This document urges adoption of the PCMH model and ACOs, but argues that in order for these new paradigms to succeed in the long term, all sectors with a stake in health care will need to become better aligned with them-including the employer community, which remains heavily invested in the health outcomes of millions of Americans. At present, ACOs are largely being developed as a part of the Medicare and Medicaid systems, and the PCMH model is still gathering momentum and evolving among physicians. But, the potential exists for implementation of both of these concepts across a much broader community of patients. By extending the well-conceived integrative concepts of the PCMH model and ACOs into the workforce via occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) physicians, the power of these concepts would be significantly enhanced. Occupational and environmental medicine provides a well-established infrastructure and parallel strategies that could serve as a force multiplier in achieving the fundamental goals of the PCMH model and ACOs. In this paradigm, the workplace-where millions of Americans spend a major portion of their daily lives-becomes an essential element, next to communities and homes, in an integrated system of health anchored by the PCMH and ACO concepts. To be successful, OEM physicians will need to think and work innovatively about how they can provide today's employer health services-ranging from primary care and preventive care to workers' compensation and disability management-within tomorrow's PCMH and ACO models.

Factors affecting the frequency of value-focused health activities and policies by employers.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to gather employer perspectives about value-focused activities (VFAs), intentions to make decisions based on value, and other factors affecting decisions. METHODS: Health decision-makers (n = 174), both American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine members and corporate HR/benefits directors, responded to an Internet-based questionnaire. RESULTS: Of a total of 32 listed VFAs, companies reported, on average, performing 5.2 activities currently and considering 2.6. Twenty-five percent of companies reported doing eight or more. The most common VFAs were providing access to flu shots, centers of excellence, and wellness programs. Greater access to detailed outcome data was associated with doing more VFAs, as was greater accountability for absence, disability, and productivity outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Employers vary widely in the number of VFAs in which they participate. Decision-makers with more information about, and accountability for, value outcomes reported doing more VFAs.