Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare: partnering with Lake County organizations for wellness initiative.

Cancer and heart disease are major health-care concerns. Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers has been working with local organizations to address these issues. Tom Gryzbek, president of Saint Margaret Mercy emphasizes the need to educate employees.

"Treatment of these diseases is expensive with incurring indirect costs like loss of productivity and absenteeism as well as incurring the cost of the provision of health care."

Gryzbek and his team at Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers have implemented a program to address health risk factors.

Tim Ross, Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers' community relations coordinator, says area employers have embraced the new initiative. "These companies want all the help they can get in reducing employee absenteeism and increasing productivity."

"The stronger the relationship between hospitals and employers, the better the chances of controlling treatment costs," states Ben Rosario, founder and chief executive officer of Well Life Healthcare.

Well Life Healthcare has been working with Saint Margaret Mercy for the past 10 months in building a conduit between the hospitals and the business community.

During this time, Saint Margaret Mercy has been working with over 35 businesses to assist in the provision of health and wellness information at the worksite. In addition, these organizations are provided data on their employees' top four disease categories.

"This information provides a snapshot of their employee health risk exposure. For example, if there is a high incidence in cardiovascular disease, we are able to target seminars and informational pieces on reducing these risks," says Dawn Kesic, regional account manager for Well Life Healthcare Communications and representative for...