Employee Testimonial
"Mission: Health doesn't rely on just one thing to motivate you. What works for me may not work for someone else. While the financial incentive wasn't that important to me, I know it was for others. I'm very goal-oriented, so for me, it was about helping me put priorities in place."
Vice President of Pharmacy Tim Jennings, Sentara Healthcare
Resources
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Generic Drugs: A Smart Way to Reduce Healthcare Costs
Get Fit: Getting the Most Out of Your Employer Wellness Programs
Don't Break Your Arm and Your Wallet: Using Participating Providers Reduces Healthcare Costs
The Value of Health Coaches: Helping to Keep Healthcare Costs Down for Employers and Employees
Choosing a Health Plan During Open Enrollment: For Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance
How to Change a Health Habit: Saving Money on Healthcare by Saving Your Health
YouTube
Want to learn more about health and wellness? Check out our YouTube videos.
The Value of the Employee Assistance Program
Employee Perspectives
Sentara Healthcare employees are passionate about the Mission: Health wellness program and how it has impacted their lives. Read real stories about employees who have seen results.
Freeman Pauling
Freeman Pauling, a tractor-trailer driver for Sentara Healthcare, has been in the Diabetes Program since 2008, and he's watched his blood pressure, blood sugar and weight go down since he started working with a health coach.
"They push me to exercise and eat properly," Pauling says. "I try to stay away from fried foods and to exercise three times a week." Pauling either goes to the gym to do cardio work or enjoys walking at Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach.
"I've also learned that a lot of things I was eating – like white rice – are not good for you," he says. "The program is excellent. It feels good to be able to talk to someone. Everyone is so positive, and they care about you and your health. That excites me."
Robert Bray
Mission: Health increased employee Robert Bray's health consciousness and reminded him that he has control.
Bray, Sentara Healthcare chief collections counsel, was a critical care nurse before he switched careers and went to law school. Bray says he improved his blood pressure and cholesterol primarily through better dietary choices. And though his weight isn't what he would like for it to be, he feels healthier and knows that he has the capacity to make behavioral changes.
"When I was a nurse, I didn't have the same level of health awareness that I have now," he says. "I never internalized the connection between working with critically ill patients and making healthy choices. Mission: Health brought it full circle."
Tim Jennings
Sentara Healthcare Vice President of Pharmacy Tim Jennings says he thinks the Mission: Health approach is successful because it includes multiple motivational prompts, one of which is sure to speak to individual participants.
"What works for me may not work for someone else," he explains. "The financial incentive was not the important aspect for me. I'm very goal-oriented, so for me, it was about using the health coach as motivation to get my risk factors under control."
Because of Mission: Health, Jennings got serious about exercise – going to the gym from three to five mornings per week before work – and he improved his diet. He reduced his total cholesterol from 222 to 179 in nine months without medication.
Becky Gregory, RN
Becky Gregory, RN, an Optima obstetrics case manager, is enrolled in the Diabetes Program and Coronary Artery Disease Program. She has experienced positive results, including a 54-pound weight loss.
Gregory achieved her success through working with a health coach and a commercial weight-loss program. She says she thinks the Mission: Health plan is effective because it holds people accountable.
"Here I am a nurse, yet I would let my prescriptions run out. Lynn (her health coach) would ask me if I was filling my drugs, so I had to keep up with it. She was always encouraging me."
Sherrie Harris
Sherrie Harris, network educator at Optima Health, is an employee who has benefited in multiple ways from the wellness program in Mission: Health.
Harris has always had to fight a weight problem, but as she got older and the pounds crept up, so did her cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure. As her three children got older, she didn't want them to be embarrassed by her weight. Having failed at yo-yo dieting, Harris asked her physician in 2006 about gastric bypass surgery.
Before agreeing to the surgery, he required Harris to try to lose the weight through a formal program, so Harris began attending "Weight Watchers at Work," partially funded by Sentara. Within two years, Harris lost 156 pounds, taking her BMI from a morbidly obese BMI of 47 to a slim 22. "I got tears in my eyes when I reached my goal," Harris says.
She says Mission: Health's incentives have definitely helped to motivate her to lose – and keep off – the weight. Now her blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar numbers are all normal, and she doesn't have to be under the care of a doctor. As an added bonus, her 19-year-old daughter was inspired to lose 60 pounds, as well.
Ronald Duke, Jacquie Corsmo and Chandra Hinton
Employees in the Mission: Health program became very attached to their health coaches.
"My coach, Rosie Dalbec, was wonderful," says Ronald Duke, medical assistant in the Wound Care Department at Sentara Obici. "If I have to go back into the program, I hope I get her again."
Jacquie Corsmo, a member of the Claims Resolution Team at Optima, agrees. "Rosie is very supportive and down-to-earth," she says.
"Lynn always calmed me down," says Chandra Hinton, insurance verifier with Patient Financial Services at Sentara. "I call her whenever I needed a pep talk, at least once a month. We're on a first-name basis. I use her like a therapist."
For more information about incentive-based wellness programs, call 1-866-380-9668 or email wellnesspayoff@sentara.com.
