Travis County Commssioners Court
February 24, 2004
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Item 29
29. Is to consider and takeapproprs county wellness festival and plans for future events.
>> good morning. I'm the executive manager for administrative operations w me is lee mccormick, safety engineer, and a trainer in our wellness program. About two weeks ago on a Thursday, the 12th, we held a wellness fair. It was very well attended. We had over 700 employees come through the granger lobby. We had very good success and we had over -- we had 142 people go through the health screening with the lions club. Many comments from the participants say, well, I didn't know I had a problem with my eyes, because they tested for vision, for glaucoma. There were a couple of folks that mentioned they had not tested their blood pressure for a long time and were really glad that they came by. So there were multiple referrals back to their particular doctors out of that testing, which is exactly what we wanted to do is be able to spot problems and address them as quickly as possible. On the massage therapy, we had about 14 people at 15-minute sessions. That was a very popular -- very popular session and we had a therapist that did the massage and everyone came out of there smiling, much more relaxed. Group walking, we had 204 employees sign up. About five groups. I had one yesterday, led a group, and it was about 23 people signed up and I had about five show up, but I think the rain may have -- yeah, run them off and I'm going to keep at them and send them reminders so we'll have a better group. But after the rain the walk was just beautiful and we were able to see a rainbow. We had 29 people sign up for individual walking pledges. And then about 76 employees signed up that they will participate in the wellness program in various activities. Our pilot projects are also well attended with about 18 employees. Smoking cessation had about 24 employees. And then there is an aerobics class at palm school that has about 12 phoeu ease, and I understand that's getting larger, that group, because it's done at noon.
>> I ran into them in the elevator yesterday. A lot from the county attorney's office on the fourth floor.
>> good. So we had I think overall good success. We -- on our wellness projects, we focused on two areas, the cardiovascular and then diabetes and other sorts of -- no, I'm sorry, it was cardiovascular, which included diabetes, and then we had asthma and allergies, respiratory areas. And we will have dr. Alamia hospital practice focuses on diabetes, he will be here this Thursday, the 26th, from 12:15 to 1:15 here in the Commissioners court. We want to invite all employees that want to learn more about diabetes, how to manage it, how to reduce the effect of it and maybe even eliminate medication. That is here at the Commissioners court, a room on Thursday, February 26th, 12:15 to 1:15, and that is part of our pilot, but it's open to all employees who would like to attend.
>> alicia, are you going to put out either an e-mail or voice mail basically telling people --
>> yes, ma'am. So we are still working on several projects. We are working on an automated tracking system for exercise. That should be read any the next couple of weeks where employees will be able to log in to their -- into their computer and go to a site that will monitor for them their activities and their -- they will have weight, walking, running, swimming, and you will be able to monitor and keep track of that. And that will be ready in the next couple of weeks. Do you have anything to add, lee?
>> like she said before, a good turnout with all the employees. Had over 700 employees come through the wellness fair and all of them showed they are willing and wanting to leave participate -- wanting to leave participate in some type of physical activity and better to help and hopefully with the next step in the next wellness fair, we can get more employees to come out and that should start I think end of March, end of next month.
>> can we send an invitation out to dependents, anybody who is on our health program?
>> sure.
>> I think we ought to invite them all to be a part of that.
>> alicia, are you one of the five groups of walk senators.
>> yes, sir.
>> and your group has 23?
>> 23 signed up.
>> so the other four groups has about 40.
>> yes and --
>> do they walk after work or before work?
>> let me ask jane.
>> you were walking after work.
>> yes. We start off at 5:30 and do the capitol grounds because the traffic at that time, but the capitol grounds are just beautiful in the spring -- and the spring promises to be just a very delightful and colorful walk, and we're still open. If there are employees out there that have some time between 5:30, only takes us about 35, 40 minutes if you want to do the three miles. And if not, you can just do a mile. It's easy enough to be able to track a mile or three or if you want to go more. We walk around the capitol. It was just a lovely walk yesterday and I would invite everyone that wanted to come after work for about 30, 40 minutes to come out and join us here at the Commissioners court room.
>> once you do plan b, whenever it rains, and walk the parking lot. Walk the garage.
>> I tried that. It gets kind of slick in there. It gets real slick in there.
>> at 5:00 or 5:30, we would get run over for sure.
>> plan b when it rains, over at the capitol they have an inside track that's .03 miles, they can walk on the inside of the capitol and it's mapped out over there. Any time it rains you can go there and do your indoor walking.
>> my group is one of the -- well, I'm one of the leaders for the 11:30 lunch group, and we have had an enormous amount of success this past week. The most miles that were walked by this group so far that i've received was a total of 18 miles, and that doesn't just -- that includes some miles they did at home as well. But we had four days last week that several of the people walked three miles each day. And considering they are going from very little walking to as much as three miles a day for four days, that is just -- I am so impressed with the turnout that we've gotten so far, and I hope that we continue to motivate these people, continue to add -- if we just add one mile a week, that will be just an enormous amount for everyone concerned. And I'm really excited about this program.
>> alicia, I thought it was interesting, I mean you all do a great job on that day. I mean a lot of enthusiasm, you all are to be congratulate on that. Really pulled off a nice event. I got fightened, I think I told some of you all, that my wife's company that has about a thousand employees embarked on a wellness program and she said Gerald, she said beware of what you are doing. She said our premiums went up because so many people found out what was wrong with them that they -- I mean she was serious. And their pharmaceutical -- and pharmaceuticals drive this so much and you are a perfect example. You take zocor for your cholesterol. And let me assure you that if you take a substantial number of people and they get on medication that you will see your premiums go up. And so I think we need to -- and that's not grounds not to do the wellness program, I don't think, because long term it is better for people. Because if you can stop, you know, heart issues and things like that and cholesterol, but that is something that we may need to be prepared for. I mean as the county, I mean because the last thing we want to see is oh, my god we did this thing and our insurance premiums went up, you know, 10%. We may have to have a real long-range plan at this. I was telling her how successful the wellness program was that day and she said I got good news and bad news for you. Just to pass that along so we don't get hit up beside the head with it.
>> and I think that is something that you could see in the short term, but as you said, you take the zocor to ward off the heart disease. We trust in the long run it will be beneficial. Again, just one avenue because we will -- we met with united health care, we'll be going up to meet with medco, our pharmaceutical distributors, so we're looking at all kinds of methods to try to minimize the increase. We all know that it will increase. I feel confident to say that because that's just the way that the whole industry is going. But if we can -- but I do also feel confident we are not going to see the same increase that we did this last year because that was an anomaly.
>> alicia, how will you alert the employees of Travis County for these particular specialists that are coming in to advise us on how to take care of ourselves, whatever chronic illness you have, how do we -- you mentioned diabetes a little earlier and you mentioned when the person will be here. How will you alert the employees as far as --
>> there is a couple of ways. We've been -- it was suggested we go ahead and go to e-mail. In the literature that was sent out, the announcement for the health care fair, it was listed as one of the sessions in there. And of course working with our personnel liaisons in all of the different departments we will let them know. But we'll do wide distribution of an e-mail to them.
>> there's some alarming statistics, and I didn't realize, but they were saying there's been a significant increase in african-american population that have diabetes, and the sad thing about it is that a lot of folks in the african-american don't know they have it. And of course that would be I think a good way to look into these kind of things.
>> oh, yes.
>> thank you.
>> any action required today?
>> no, sir. It's just a report back today.
>> thank you I views just one real quickly. Steven is leading the smoking cessation. He's here, and he quit smoking. I never thought steven would ever quit smoking until he lost a bet during budget process and had to quit smoking, but it is being led by somebody who had a long-term addiction and been there and done that and I wanted to say congratulations.
>> thank you, steven.
>> that will teach you to make bets.
>> there is one other, I think -- I didn't see her in the audience.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> next Wednesday we're going to have a session on low-fat snacks, and we know that snacking is an area where sometimes we get a little out of control so we're going to emphasize those snacks that we can eat and portion control.
>> where is it going to be?
>> [inaudible].
>> going to take out pork chops. Looking at, for instance, pound cake and strawberries and low-fat whipped topping, pretzels, things of that nature. And it will be 11:00 to 12:00 in human resources next Wednesday.
>> and we'll send out a reminder to everyone.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank y'all. Appreciate your hard work.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 6:44 AM