Health Wellness ProgramHealth and Wellness Programs and Wellness Program Consulting

Information to evaluate your program comes from routinely collected screening and follow-up data of your program that look at process and outcomes of your program.

The Worker Health Program has available a computerized case-management system which includes queries that allow easy assessment of process and outcome results at any point in time.

Process Evaluation

Process evaluation looks at the  Employee Wellness Program’s impact as seen at various points in time.

Information that is gathered from the various forms that wellness staff members fill out must supply you with the following:

• How many workers were screened?
• How many workers who were referred to a doctor went?
• How many workers who expressed interest in health improvement programs went?
• How many employees who were referred to health improvement programs went?
• How many employees who went to health improvement programs completed them?
• How many workers are in follow-up caseload?

You can use this type of process evaluation to evaluate and learn about the health of your program.

Outcome Assessment

A central objective of the program is to better the health of employees. Information on how to judge how well your program is meeting this objective is called “outcome assessment” because you are evaluating the end results or outcome of your program.

In wellness programs, objectives are gauged by specific (outcomes) behavior changes and reductions in health risk levels. Have staff members lowered their Blood Pressure (BP)? Have they lost weight? Are they working out more? Is alcohol consumption at a safe level? For example these are the types of questions you can ask to find out if you are reaching your objectives:

• For employees with high Blood Pressure (140 / 90 or higher or on medication) at screening, what percentage have it under control (below 140 / 90) a year later?
• What is the shift in average Blood Pressure (BP) levels among all staff members with high Blood Pressure (BP) 1 year after evaluation? Two years later?
• For employees with elevated blood cholesterol levels (above 240) at screening, what percentage has reduced their cholesterol to borderline-high levels (200-239)?
• For employees with borderline-high blood cholesterol levels, what percentages have reduced their cholesterol to the desirable range (below 200)?
• What is the change in average cholesterol levels among all employees with high and borderline-high blood cholesterol levels 1 year after evaluation? Two years later?
• For workers who were overweight at evaluation, what percentage have lost 20 pounds or more a year later? Ten pounds or more? What is the average weight loss?
• For employees who were tobacco users at assessment, what percentages have quit smoking? For at least a year?
• For employees whose level of alcohol consumption put them at-risk at evaluation, what percentage have quit drinking alcohol? Are consuming alcohol at levels considered safe by CDC standard procedures? Have reduced their drinking, but are still at-risk?
• For employees, what percentages are exercising at least three times a week for at least 20 minutes?
• If fitness levels were measured, what percentages have improved fitness?

Set a regular time such as every 6 months to look at which employees your program is reaching and how effective it is at assisting them decrease their health risks. Use this information to make new decisions about how to direct your program efforts. Then make the modification you need to better your program.

Some may feel that evaluation is an extravagance; it is not. Assessment is a crucial part of a wellness program. You will need to be aware of what is working and what is not. Decision-makers who fund the program need to be updated on the effectiveness of the program. Evaluation will provide you with crucial data to maintain and expand the program and convince management to continue to support the program.