A healthy workplace: employees need to be proactive in their diets and preventive care to remain healthy and to help their businesses remain profitable.

• Author: Myers, Deborah J.

"People feel caught, like their Skills are invaluable and they Come in when they're sick,"

--Jan Beauchamp Infection Control and Employee Health Coordinator Bartlett Regional Hospital Juneau

Employee illnesses cost companies money--$260 billion nationwide in 2003, according to survey data gathered by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund. The health care research organization found that in the same year, 69 million employees said they had missed work because of illness, totaling 407 million days of lost work.

Keeping your employees healthy is in their best interest as well as yours as an employer. Lost time costs productivity, drives up health insurance premiums and hurts morale. Fortunately, it has never been easier to minimize your employees' health risks.

Proactive Care

Short-term illnesses have the most immediate effect on your employees. When illnesses such as colds, flu and intestinal "bugs" sweep through a workplace, the results can devastate attendance.

One easy way to reduce influenza from squelching your productivity is to offer immunization shots, which Jennifer Grogg, infection control practitioner with Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, said are about 89 percent effective.

Unfortunately, only about 47 percent to 48 percent of the population use them.

Jan Beauchamp, infection control and employee health coordinator at Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau, said that all the staff receives flu shots because "they fall into the high-risk category as a health organization."

Other high-risk populations include those with chronic underlying medical conditions, the elderly, employees with direct public contact and those who care for young children. Most employees fall into one or more of those categories, so immunizing all of them is the easiest route to take.

Flu immunization shots cost only $8 to $30 apiece, depending upon if your employees go to a clinic or have a nurse visit your location.

"We've found that (the shots) pay for themselves," said Ann-Marie Martin, program coordinator for Harris Health Trends Inc. in Juneau.

She recommends offering the shots free to employees to ensure they receive them.

Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) helps prevent illnesses such as pneumonia and meningitis and helps minimize the impact of these diseases on those who have had them in the past. Consider offering PPV for those in high-risk categories, such as those with compromised immune systems, previous related illnesses, and those...