Program Director & Professor, Health Organizations Administration, Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, OK

Dissertation Title

Employer-Based Wellness Programs: Financial Value to the Organization.

Dissertation Abstract

The health and wellness of employees is of strategic importance for healthcare organizations to achieve leadership in the current world of accountable care and health reform. This study sought to discover whether an organizational program, focused on health promotion and wellness for employees, has a value to the organization.

This quantitative evaluation study examines the key success variables of a wellness program implemented at a medical facility in the United States by examining the medical costs incurred among 525 participants and non-participants of the facility sponsored fitness and wellness program known as Full Engagement Training (FET). The research questions allowed the dependent variables to include (a) allowed costs, (b) paid costs, and (c) direct paid costs.

Using the descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, the study addresses the impact of participation the Full Engagement Training wellness program on medical costs for employees. The results of the study provide valuation evidence concerning teaching employees how to change their health outcomes through lifestyle change that drives the success of an organizational wellness program.