THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTENT PROVIDED BY THE MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL
Fostering Health–More Than Wellness–with Precision, Personalization and Prevention AS HEALTHCARE EXPENDITURES CONTINUE to rise, companies are seeking health solutions that increase productivity, minimize healthcare costs and reduce risk. But improving health in the workforce starts at the top with a solid executive health program. Research conducted in July 2016 for The Mount Sinai Hospital by Chief Executive Group found that nearly 70 percent of companies do not offer yearly health and wellness programs in addition to their regular health coverage. At those companies that do offer such programs, 66 percent of executives said they don’t participate because they are too busy or find the programs inconvenient. Nearly half of surveyed executives said comprehensiveness and convenience were the most important factors in a health and wellness plan. An effective health program should promote preventative care with personalized medicine and health improvement solutions geared to each person’s lifestyle. It should also maximize efficiency, minimize the waste of resources and merge core services with low reimbursement into overhead. Mount Sinai’s Comprehensive Health Program— developed by Dr. Valentin Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart and physician-in-chief at The Mount Sinai Hospital, based on his 40 years of experience—gathers comprehensive health metrics and delivers actionable recommendations in a single day. Enabling executives to obtain a holistic view into their health and creating a detailed road map for improvements serves as a model for company wide health initiatives. The program shifts the focus from disease treatment to disease prevention, moving beyond simple testing and interpretation of data by giving patients a customized health plan. Patients receive highly personalized care from senior physicians who help them become proactive about their health. The program uses comprehensive, state-of-the-art tests to screen for risk factors of preventable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Doctors use test results to make individualized recommendations that address current or potential future health issues. Completing all the advanced testing on the same day eliminates the need for multiple visits and increases the likelihood the patient will take an active approach in improving health outcomes.
A key principle of the Mount Sinai’s Comprehensive Health Program is that patients are given a highly personalized level of care throughout the day. As each test is completed, a team of expert medical professionals rapidly processes the information and produces a comprehensive health evaluation. Rather than generic advice such as “eat better” and “exercise more,” patients are given specific, personalized courses of action for improving their health outcomes. These recommendations can include dietary and lifestyle changes but are often tailored to the patient’s preferences and individual characteristics. The personalization also helps motivate and “activate” patients early in the program to prepare them for change. The program engages patients quickly with a “two-sided approach” that makes healthcare more streamlined, effective and efficient by motivating patients in personalized ways that appeal to their own individual patterns and humanistic attributes. Doctors can be matched with patients or assume styles that fit the patients’ needs. The program also calls for quarterly to annual follow-ups, depending on the age and health status of the patient. Patients repeat all, or major parts, of the testing in an efficient, day-long evaluation to compare their new measurements with the original. These follow-up sessions deliver annual quality metrics that create accountability and durability in the success of the program. And this strict, almost mandatory, follow-up helps the patient change behavior and make persistent health improvements.