Wellness programs are a nearly $8 billion industry in the U.S. and are expected to grow at a clip of nearly 7.8 percent through 2021. Over 60 percent of organizations offer wellness programs to their employees to date. And the benefits are clear, wellness programs have demonstrated improved productivity and reduced healthcare costs. Studies show that effective programs are associated with 11 percent higher revenue per employee, 1.8 fewer absences per employee per year, and 28 percent greater shareholder returns. In a nutshell, a win-win for all.
A key factor to consider when developing a corporate wellness program is 
the level of support in the program. Many wellness programs have a great platform, but they can be intimidating to start using, resulting in low adoption rates. You can improve employee usage of your programs by incorporating a 24/7 live support into your wellness program. Live support gives the program a personal feel, improves usage, and gives the employees an easy resource to reach out to when they have a question and learn more about the program.
A difficulty, however, is getting that live support. One solution is to use the free 24/7 Health Ambassadors that come with Continuwell. These Health Ambassadors are trained medical nurses who can answer any health concerns from your staff as well as educate them on your company’s wellness programs and resources.
Continuwell allows your organization to customize a dashboard and mobile app to highlight your company’s important employee resources and then use the Health Ambassadors to help improve the utilization of those resources. Continuwell’s internal nurse software allows the nurse to view the wellbeing and health options the caller can use through their employer. For example, nurses can have information on hand about smoking cessation programs offered by the company, EAP programs, as well as can provide custom handouts about specific health concerns.
Case Study – How a Health Ambassador Used Customized Orders to Help an Employee After an Accident
An employee of a manufacturing client, Mathew[1], recently called his Continuwell Health Ambassador after he had an accident. The goal of the nurse was both to assess the severity of Mathew’s symptoms to determine if he needed to seek additional medical attention and to inform him about other company resources that he could use for further help.
In Mathew’s case, the health ambassador nurse provided him with his insurance contact information so that he could find the hospital and a physician that were in his network. The nurse also helped Mathew with information about how to access his flexible spending account to pay any out-of-pocket medical expenses. Additionally, she reminded him to complete the accident report form that was listed on his Continuwell dashboard.
As this case demonstrates, using the Continuwell mobile application with access to Health Ambassadors allows employees and staff to receive support thoroughly because the nurses have customized company information available. Implementing an easy-to-use solution in your company improves your employee experience, their overall wellbeing, and decreases healthcare costs.
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Watch this video to see why I started Continuwell and how a Health Ambassador saved my life.
[1] Names and identifying information has been changed to protect the privacy of the caller.
