Application of implementation guidelines in a health services vendor: the WISH@Work pilot.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Katz A
• Description:
  Statement of the Problem As a part of its integrated health plan and care delivery system, Minneapolis-based HealthPartners creates and deploys web, telephonic and on-site solutions that aim to improve employee and organizational well-being. Employer customers range from small organizations to Fortune 500 companies, many of which are interested in strategies to address organizational factors affecting employee health, safety and well-being. In response to this need, HealthPartners uses organizational approaches that are consistent with and guided by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Total Worker Health® program (TWH). As a Center for Excellence within the TWH program, the Center for Work, Health and Well-being (CWHW) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has worked closely with researchers from the HealthPartners Institute, a TWH affiliate, to implement employer-based organizational interventions. These efforts contributed, in part, to the development of CWHW's implementation guidelines (Guidelines), designed to help employers address the conditions of work affecting employee health, safety and well-being. Procedures/Approach HealthPartners, as it develops its own TWH approaches, is interested in testing the use of the Guidelines as part of its set of employer-based solutions and consultative services in the areas of Health & Well-being and Occupational Health and Safety. While organizational consultation is already part of its consultative approach, HealthPartners lacks a formal process to help guide employers in using policies and practices to address working conditions at their worksites. This presentation will describe the WISH@Work project, a 12-month pilot designed to assist 3 Minneapolis-based employers in applying select sections of the Guidelines. These include sections addressing: Building collaborations; Getting leadership support; Assessing major working conditions driving outcomes at the worksite; Prioritizing actions to address them; Creating an evidence-based action plan. We have chosen to focus on these specific sections of the Guidelines in order to feasibly implement a worksite-based pilot within a 12-month period. Analyses Data collection for WISH@ Work is scheduled to begin in July, 2019. By the time of the conference, we plan to present qualitative data collected in the early months of the pilot. Data will be gathered from key pilot stakeholders, including HealthPartners Technical Assistance (TA) consultants, worksite leaders and staff participating in the pilot process. Analyses will involve intensive reading, group discussion and synthesis of the evaluation data by the research team and pilot project collaborators. Results Results will provide initial insights about implementing the Guidelines within the early phases of a worksite pilot. We plan to present qualitative data related to the successes and challenges of: Recruiting worksites to participate in the pilot Training TA providers to deliver consultation to support worksites in implementing the Guidelines; Enlisting support of worksite leadership; Building teams at participating worksites to collaborate on using policies and practices to address working conditions at their enterprises. Practical implications We plan to present practical insights about the early phases of implementing a research pilot within worksites. These will include learnings regarding recruitment, training of consultants, getting leadership support, selecting champions and building intra-organizational collaboration on addressing working conditions. We will also consider differences in applying the Guidelines across participating worksites of different sizes, sectors and stages of readiness to implement organizational change. Conclusions. While the Guidelines are informed by field research, additional research is needed to understand the way the Guidelines can be adapted for practical implementation within worksites across size, sector and region. This presentation will present both opportunities and challenges related to the early phase of applying the guidelines as a vended consultative service to employers seeking to make meaningful organizational change in the areas of health, safety and well-being. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  TWH; Total Worker Health; Work organization; Worker safety; Employee health; Intervention effectiveness; Workplace studies
• Publisher:
  American Psychological Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; Minnesota ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065676
• Citation:
  Work, Stress and Health 2019, November 6-9, 2019, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2019 Nov; :223
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20070901
• Source Full Name:
  Work, Stress and Health 2019, November 6-9, 2019, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d48c1f86e7d7f914c8ddfe5fda65e68fb95797cbd6d40c22cf24ce6cf9c76f34c4c43d46f5a3a25a37583162dc6ce27ea1c18ddd23c93663c9386d8f1825002a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/248548/cdc_248548_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 103.56 KB ]