Well, well, well.
That’s what Adams County wants its employees to be, and the county’s “Journey to Wellness” program is succeeding, to judge by its results and its recent honor with a “Well Deserved” award for 2010 from UnitedHealthcare.
“We began our journey in 2001,” said county benefits administrator Pauline Hohn, who coordinates the program. “We’ve been slowly working on this for a decade.”
“We offer programs all during the year: physical fitness like zumba, kickboxing and physical fitness boot camp,” Hohn said.
Zumba, a dance workout, won’t be offered this year, but a new age dance class and tai chi are joining the program.
The boot camp is “a pretty stringent class,” she said. “You just go in and you just work out for the entire 45 minutes or an hour. It’s kind of similar to The Biggest Loser.”
Programs are offered at several locations, Hohn said. The sheriff’s office has a workout room, she said, but the county doesn’t have gyms in its buildings. The wellness sessions are held “pretty much in our conference rooms,” she said.
“We never have had facilities dedicated to the wellness program,” said Jane Vielehr, the county’s head of human resources. “We’ve just used what we could find.”
All of the county’s 1,777 benefited employees are allowed to take part in “Journey to Wellness,” and at least 720 participated in at least one wellness event last year, Hohn said. She added that points are accumulated for taking part in “Journey to Wellness,” and the 54 employees who racked up 3,000 or more points last year were entered in an awards ceremony with prizes.
Vielehr had a two-word answer for the biggest incentive to take part in the wellness program: “Good health.”
The county’s health plan began offering zero co-pays for asthma and diabetes monthly checkups in 2009. “That simple change created a savings of more than $134,000 to our self-funded plan over two years,” Hohn said. “We also saw a 74 percent reduction in emergency room treatment for chronic asthma.”
Employees who serve as “facility champs” help schedule locations for classes and answer questions about the program. “They do all this work in addition to their regular jobs,” said Hohn, who called them the “backbone” of the program.
Employees pay fees to take part in “Journey to Wellness.” A county subsidy of $100,000 mostly goes to pay for health fairs held each October.
The health fairs offer free blood screenings for conditions such as high cholesterol, diabetes and cancer. “It seems every year we have one employee who has early detection of a serious illness,” Hohn said.
UnitedHealthcare, the third-party administrator for the county’s health plan, and Kaiser Permanente “both bring a lot to the table,” Vielehr said. Their free assistance includes UnitedHealthcare’s nutritional classes and Kaiser’s “Maintain, Don’t Gain” holiday weight-control program and “Walk Across Colorado,” a program to increase the amount of walking that participants do.
Hohn saluted the teamwork involved in “Journey to Wellness,” encompassing the county commissioners, other elected officials, department directors, facility champs, Vielehr, UnitedHealthcare, Kaiser Permanente and the employees who take part.
Katie Goss, UnitedHealthcare’s director of health strategies for Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana, said, “Adams County has been unique in that they don’t take no for an answer.”
Only 10 “Well Deserved” awards were handed out for 2010, and Adams County was the only public organization to be recognized.
“Most benefits teams are risk-averse,” Goss aid. “You need to invest a little. It’s always difficult to embrace change.”
“Adams County is constantly thinking of new ideas to keep people engaged,” Goss said.
Tonia Fuller, an executive assistant to Sheriff Doug Darr, was among top achievers with 6,800 wellness points last year.
“I tried to take part in just about everything they offered,” Fuller said.
Fuller said she went down two dress sizes and has gained energy. “It’s helped me sleep better. I don’t get that 3 o’clock where I’m sleepy in the afternoon,” she said, adding: “Zumba and yoga almost got rid of all of my back pain.”
“It’s hard. It’s not easy,” Fuller said of her involvement in the wellness program. But she added: “It’s a great stress reliever. It really helps you deal with those days that aren’t so great.”
Fuller didn’t achieve the most points in 2010, which is her aim this year.
“There’s a girl that beat me,” she said.
That would be Michelle Bobst, a GIS technician for public works engineering, who accumulated 8,466 points. Bobst’s total was boosted by participation in an outside program that counts toward the “Journey to Wellness” numbers, Hohn wrote.
Bobst wrote that the “Fit Soldier” boot camp “was my all time favorite,” and added that increased nutritional awareness has been a boon to her family: “We have healthy meals and no longer live in the fast food drive thru.”
She wrote that the program has helped her go down four dress sizes and become happier. “Health and happiness, what more could a person ask for,” Bobst wrote.
Scott Gilbert can be reached at scottg@metronorthnews.com