Northern Westchester Hospital Committed to Employee Health & Wellness

Employees Encouraged to ‘Move It to Lose It’

Northern Westchester Hospital is pulling out all the stops when it comes to encouraging and fostering healthy behavior for its employees. From installing a ‘Grab ‘n Go’ refrigerated station in the cafeteria that offers staff members and visitors healthy prepared foods when they’re on the run, offering smoking cessation programs and nutritional counseling to an all-out, no-holds-barred fitness competition with their sister hospitals within the Stellaris Health Network – NWH is more than committed to employee wellness.

The most recent initiative, Move It to Lose It, is akin to the popular Biggest Loser competition, with a twist. It’s not just about weight loss, “it was about camaraderie with colleagues, and getting people moving or moving more,” said Kerry Flynn-Barrett, VP of Human Resources at Northern Westchester Hospital. “While weight loss programs work for some staff, Move It to Lose It was designed to get staff to exercise in the way that they enjoy. Through exercise and healthy eating, weight loss will come,” she continued.

“And of course, we sweetened the pot a bit,” said Ms. Flynn-Barrett. Participants were incented throughout the program with raffles and prizes and the grand prize winners received their choice of tickets to a Yankees game or a Broadway performance. Almost 300 staff members at NWH (over 1200 participants across the Stellaris Network) stepped up to the challenge. Twenty-nine (29) teams were formed, and in keeping with the prize theme, were named after Major League Baseball teams.

The winning team was determined by the total number of steps taken (tracked by pedometers given to employees) and the percentage of weight lost at the end of the 9 weeks. The challenge kicked off in April 2012 and culminated on June 27, 2012 with two winning teams – the Astros (walking 11,851,570 steps and losing 2.9% of their body weight) and the Yankees (walking 13,057,061 steps and losing 1% of their body weight) tied for first place. And they celebrated at The House That Ruth Built!

Collectively, 182,436,097 steps were taken by NWH employees, the equivalent of walking 91,218 miles! The total number of steps taken by participants across all hospitals was 578,528,595.

Northern Westchester Hospital has made a significant commitment to the health and wellness of all staff members and has gone to great lengths to introduce healthy activities such as Biometric Screenings, Health Risk Assessments, Wellness Coaching, Lunch and Learns such as Healthy Snacking, and programs focused on the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

“Northern Westchester Hospital is dedicated to improving and protecting the health of individuals in the community, and that begins with our staff members. We care for those who care for our community by providing them with access to innovative health and wellness programs, and we are overjoyed at the response and levels of participation,” stated Joel Seligman, President and CEO of Northern Westchester Hospital. “Earlier this year, we also received the CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ accreditation, recognizing the Hospital’s extraordinary commitment to fighting cancer in the workplace, something of which we are extremely proud. Community health and wellness is a continued focus and we plan to keep up the momentum!”