Norton Healthcare employees are showing improvements in their health outcomes through participation in the program.

Published: September 27, 2019 | Updated: October 9, 2019

Norton Healthcare has been awarded an honorable mention for the C. Everett Koop National Health Awards.

The awards, named for Dr. Koop, who served as U.S. surgeon general from 1982 to 1989, recognize organizations with outstanding worksite wellness programs.

The awards require strong documentation for both health improvement and business impact. Organizations that are recognized must demonstrate:

• Health improvements and cost savings from health promotion and disease prevention programs
• A culture of health at the workplace and/or in the community
• Improvements in health by helping individuals change unhealthy behaviors and reduce health risks

Norton Healthcare supports a well workforce through N Good Health, our comprehensive wellness program for employees and eligible spouses.

Since its inception in 2012, N Good Health has maintained an average employee engagement rate of over 80% and an average spousal participation rate of 68%. In 2018, 71.4% of eligible employees completed the program’s four steps to earn wellness credit incentives, representing a year-over-year increase of nearly 3%.

Norton Healthcare employees are showing improvements in their health outcomes through participation in the program, including:

• An all-time high of 94.8% of employees do not use tobacco.
• Since 2016, participants have shown a 2% decrease in the prevalence of high blood pressure and a 3.5% decrease in tobacco usage.
• The obesity rate among participants has not increased, remaining at around 42% for the past three years.
• N Good Health participants have had lower medical and prescription costs year after year than nonparticipants, according to evaluation of claims data. Nonparticipants saw a 9.4% increase in their three-year total medical and prescription cost trend. Participants saw a significantly lower increase of only 5.4%.

“Norton Healthcare is committed to improving the health of our community. And that starts with our own,” said Allison Ledford, director, employee wellness. “N Good Health’s goal for Norton Healthcare is for it to be the healthiest health system in the nation. To do that, we will continue to find innovative ways to stay a healthy place to work, support healthy choices and work-life balance, and improve our employees’ health.”