The City of Riverside is a great place to work.
We have a family, friendly environment.
We really promote employee engagement
with our wellness program. We really care about our employees and we've
worked hard to make it a place where employees can be productive in their work environment,
with the kinds of resources that we offer them. When City of Riverside
approached me on the wellness program,
what they shared with me at that time was that they were really
concerned about their costs. A part of our discussion
was looking at the cost drivers to the health plan. They became apparent to us that they were very common
within most organizations and they were in areas that employees could actually do
something about through their lifestyle changes.
That we can actually partner with Kaiser and come up with
plans and programs that could help
employees engage in a better, healthier lifestyle
that could then impact utilization for our particular plan.
We have 3 excellent reports, but the Prevention and Lifestyle Risks report,
it enabled them to see what their
population was really like. These reports are driven
by our actual clinical data, so we know specifically what's going on with these groups
and so we know where to take a group that might have an
issue with obesity, that might have an
issue with smoking, or that might even have an issue with Diabetes.
When we were presented the report, there were several things that were brought to our
attention, which were
chronic illnesses within our employee population. There was
asthma, there was obesity, I think there was Diabetes.
And so, with that information, we were able to tailor our workshop topics
to actually target individuals that were dealing with those issues.
When the data came, we were excited. It was something we could wrap our arms around and just really dive into.
And recognizing how we could utilize it and create or build
a program that would be so effective for our employees.
So, with the help of Kaiser, what we were able to do
was formulate a program that would be educational to our employees,
and Kaiser partnered with us and we were able to
put our workshops together. We were able to use
online tools through their website and really connected with what they had
going on their end.
(Man: "Well, basically what we're here to do today is
get you guys set up for success.") Knowing what sort of chronic conditions
were affecting their group, we were able to devise a plan that we knew would address
some of the lifestyle issues that we could focus on and have a positive impact with.
So, you know, nutrition and physical activity, of course, being the primary.
So, we were able to design a plan to get people
more physically active and to help people try to manage their weight
through dietary and physical activity habits, so that is really how the
Get Fit Challenge came about - was utilizing those two areas of need to create a program for them.
People here at the City of Riverside have absolutely
benefited and completely recognize that Kaiser
has significantly contributed to the Get Fit Challenge.
Without Kaiser participating, we wouldn't have the myriad of
information coming our way. The people coming out and doing
talks and giving the staff the information that they desire.
If it weren't for Kaiser Permanante, I don't think we would have
this program, the Get Fit Challenge program here and I think it would be a shame
because I really think it helped bring a lot of people together, to be healthy
and to stay fit and to try to lose weight, together as a city.