Preventive and promotive health initiatives: An experience of a wellness

clinic in southern India

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Original Article

Preventive and promotive health initiatives: Anexperience of a wellness clinic in southern India

Rohin Rameswarapu a,*, K. Surendranath Sai b, Upasna Kamineni c

a Technical Consultant, Apollo Life, Indiab Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Indiac Executive Director, Apollo Life, India

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 5 January 2015

Accepted 13 January 2015

Available online xxx

Keywords:

Wellness clinics

Preventive healthcare

Lifestyle diseases

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 998970960E-mail address: dr.rohin.r@gmail.com (R.

Please cite this article in press as: Ramwellness clinic in southern India, Apollo

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apme.2015.01.0020976-0016/Copyright © 2015, Indraprastha M

a b s t r a c t

Introduction: Wellness clinics play a pivotal role in the transforming health status and help

in bringing better outcomes of the employees' of an organization. Having a wellness clinic

at workplace is an opportunity for the employees' to understand the concepts of health

promotion and prevention, in addition to out-patient department. The article shares the

experience of wellness clinic established in one of the multinational organization.

Materials and methods: Data was gathered from 3 wellness clinics which are across the

Hyderabad city of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. The wellness clinics were headed by

medical officers, whose primary responsibilities were to manage medical and surgical

emergencies, managing referrals, assisting in audits, conducting various preventive health

talks and health promotion initiatives for the associates of the organization.

Results: There were a total of 6 health talks, about 700 vaccinations, 3 wellness workshops

were conducted on healthy heart, eye and ear care and first aid training. Annual medical

examination was performed to a total of 1028 the employees.

Conclusion: Preventive health and wellness initiatives through medical rooms can un-

equivocally augment health outcomes among employees. Employers should look at

various initiatives in promoting health at work place.

Copyright © 2015, Indraprastha Medical Corporation Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Wellness clinics play a pivotal role in the transforming health

status and help in bringing better outcomes of the employees'of an organization. Majority of the Indian population is young,

productive and mostly in middle age, who are at risk of

developing chronic lifestyle diseases due their nature of work,

dietary habits, familial history and stress. To combat the

4.Rameswarapu).

eswarapu R, et al., PrevMedicine (2015), http://d

edical Corporation Ltd. A

present rise in non-communicable lifestyle diseases among

young work force of India, effective interventional strategies

should be in place at various operational levels. Employers'have the responsibility to ensure the employees' are not

attending to office due to sickness absenteeism and work to

the optimal levels, that the productivity is not compromised.

Employers' have been willing to try out new health and

wellness initiatives and venture in newer directions for

entive and promotive health initiatives: An experience of ax.doi.org/10.1016/j.apme.2015.01.002

ll rights reserved.

a p o l l o m e d i c i n e x x x ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1e32

betterment of the health of the employees'. Having a wellness

clinic at workplace is an opportunity for the employees' tounderstand the concepts of health promotion and prevention,

in addition to out-patient department. Apollo Life, as an or-

ganization conscientiously focussed on providing solutions on

integrative health and wellness services for manufacturing

and IT sector organizations across India through occupational

health centres and wellness clinics respectively. The article

shares the experience of wellness clinic established in one of

the multinational organization.

2. Materials & methods

Apollo Life is an organization pioneering in health and well-

ness and the first of its kind in the preventive health care

space. The present article shares experiences from wellness

clinics located in the establishments of one of the largest and

global leaders of pharmaceutical sector. Data was gathered

from 3 wellness clinics which are across the Hyderabad city of

Andhra Pradesh in southern India. The wellness clinics were

headed by medical officers, whose primary responsibilities

were to manage medical and surgical emergencies, managing

referrals, assisting in audits, conducting various preventive

health talks andhealth promotion initiatives for the associates

of the organization. The clinic also had paramedic assisting

themedical officer who would dispensemedications and help

in replenishing supplies to occupational health centres.

Monthly based theme on various health posters on aspects

of communicable and non-communicable diseases, e-flyers

on importance of hand & personal hygiene; respiratory dis-

eases, smoking, hypertension and diabetes were organized.

The clinic was functional 8 h/day and five days per week.

Yearly health calendar was circulated internally for the doc-

tors and paramedics to help build awareness among associ-

ates and empower them with concepts of primary prevention

and advantages of treatment adherence. The cafeterias had

televisions and power point slides regarding common topics

related health were displayed. Pregnancy and its complica-

tions, nutrition and stress at work place were some of the

popular topics vouched by employees'.During the 9AMe5PM, when the majority of the associates

were present and working in the facility, health talks were

conducted using AV aids and power point presentations.

Health talks were for duration of 45 min with 15 min of

question and answers. Counsellingwas given to the associates

on various health issues like importance of treatment adher-

ence in chronic disease management, smoking cessation,

stress, nutrition and safe sexual practices. Practical demon-

stration andmock drillswere conducted to improve associates

capacity in handling on floor medical emergencies. The as-

sociates were taught about basic life support and emergency

evacuation. After completion, volunteers were enrolled as a

part of emergency response teams (ERT's). Vaccinations were

done as a part of health and wellness initiatives. Influenza

vaccines were administered to the employees'.All the important health days likeworld hepatitis day,world

heart day, world health day and breast cancer awareness week

were celebrated and health talks on the concerned topics were

delivered to the associates. Physical activity promotion

Please cite this article in press as: Rameswarapu R, et al., Prevwellness clinic in southern India, Apollo Medicine (2015), http://d

activities like “Fitness Championship” and “Get Fit” campaigns

were successfully launched and had observed high participa-

tion rates. A feedback boxwas also placed in thewellness clinic

to further improvetheservicequalityandactivitiesundertaken.

3. Results

During the period 2012e2013, a total of 2627 employees'participated in the health and wellness activities. There were

a total of 6 health talks, about 700 vaccinations, 3 wellness

workshops were conducted on healthy heart, eye and ear care

and first aid training. Annual medical examination was per-

formed to a total of 1028 the employees.

Other benefits were lifestyle modifications to combat

stress, irregular eating habits, smoking, alcohol dependency,

safe sexual practices, what to expect during pregnancy and

lack of physical activity. Associates were also briefed about

vector borne disease control and prevention, healthy heart

and road safety etiquettes.

4. Discussion

The concept of preventive and promotive health care plays a

key role in our day to day lives.1 This approach implies that

preventive healthcare principle can be applied in all organi-

zations and at all levels. Earlier conception of hospitals and

clinics as “Ivory Towers of Disease” is changing drastically,

due to an initiative started by World Health Organization in

1986 termed as Health Promoting Hospitals.2,3

This concept of health promotion is gradually being

adopted by all healthcare providers, and Apollo Life, Apollo

Hospitals Enterprise Limited is a forerunner and a pioneer in

providing preventive services in this area.4 The overall func-

tioning and existence of the clinic incorporating the wellness

initiatives is bestowing healthy lifestyles and behavioural

modification among the associates.5

The services of wellness clinics helped in transforming the

knowledge, attitude and practice of the medical conditions

among the associates.5,6 It was supported by the doctors and

paramedics by placing greater emphasis on preventive aspect

of healthcare. In most of the healthcare facilities of India, cli-

nicians are over-burdened by the work load in out-patient de-

partments.7 Adoption of these practices will help in the

reducing the incidence and prevalence of disease in the com-

munityand innovative& integratedmedicalapproachhas tobe

adoptedby themedical fraternity inpatient counselling,health

education and empowering themwith basic life support skills.

Our experience, of establishing wellness clinics among

these multinational companies is an example of Theory of

Diffuse Innovation.8 This theory states that, initially response

of community to any innovation is disquieted. In early stages

very few acceptors join the venture. The promoters are jittery

and edgy about the participation rates and success of the

initiative. This was also corroborated in our effort where after

the initial slow response the attendance picked up in for

various wellness activities.

The model of wellness clinics can further aid to bridge the

existing healthcare gaps in knowledge, attitude and practice

entive and promotive health initiatives: An experience of ax.doi.org/10.1016/j.apme.2015.01.002

Table 1 e Analysis of health & wellness clinic.

Input Process Output

Manpower

- Medical officer

- Paramedic

Infrastructure- Audio-visual aids, posters, charts,

televisions.

Financial support- The cost was borne by the employer.

- First aid training

- Healthy heart workshop

- Master health check up

- Influenza vaccination

- Managing stress at work

- Health education and awareness

campaigns

- Smoking cessation workshop

- Eye and ear camp

- ERT's were formed for each wing.

- 650 employees participated.

- 1028 employees participated.

- 705 employees vaccinated.

- 10 lectures on various health topics.

- 2 competitions (Fitness Champion and Get Fit campaign).

- 40% of the employees are overweight or obese.

- 30% of the associates were pre-diabetic.

- 17% of the employees had elevated blood pressure.

a p o l l o m e d i c i n e x x x ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1e3 3

among the employees and their dependants.5 This would

empower them to take greater omphalic role in self-care,

knowing their numbers and treatment adherence, which

could be bolstered with training and support to achieve sus-

tainability. The returns on this investment are humongous

with regards to patient satisfaction and quintessentially

improved health outcomes9,10 (Table 1).

5. Conclusions

Preventive health and wellness initiatives through medical

rooms can unequivocally augment health outcomes among

employees. The study also demonstrated that different groups

of employees are attracted to different types of health pro-

motion activities. Both worksite-level and employee-level

factors have significant influences on health. Similar models

can be replicated among various sectors to initiate health

promotion activities at work place and Employers should look

at various initiatives in promoting health at work place.

6. Limitations

The study only focusses on employees of an organization from

pharmaceutical sector. More studies are required to establish

the effectiveness of wellness clinics cutting across various

industrial sectors.

Conflicts of interest

All authors have none to declare.

Please cite this article in press as: Rameswarapu R, et al., Prevwellness clinic in southern India, Apollo Medicine (2015), http://d

r e f e r e n c e s

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4. Rameswarapu R, Valsangkar S, Rizvi A, Kamineni U. Trendsshaping corporate health in the workplace. Apollo Med.2014;11:217e221.

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entive and promotive health initiatives: An experience of ax.doi.org/10.1016/j.apme.2015.01.002

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