LONG BEACH, CA - St. Mary Medical Center is linking the hospital's services and programs with the health-related needs of local employers and their workforce.  The hospital has partnered with Aegis, a leader in employer-directed marketing, to help employers recognize savings in employee health costs to form the Workforce Health Initiative Program (WHIP).

SMMC will provide employers with tools to analyze potential healthcare costs and risks with their workforce while giving individual employees a confidential snapshot into their own health status.  The hospital provides employers with surveys for their employees.  Through information received from these surveys, employers are able to see the direct relationship between health risks and the cost of employee health benefits, lost productivity and profitability if problems are left untreated. By taking proactive intervention and moving at-risk employees into specific hospital-based programs, employers can save significant dollars in employee health costs, absenteeism, healthcare premiums, worker's compensation and other healthcare-related expenditures.

Some of the employers that we are targeting include: Boeing, City of Long Beach, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach Unified School District, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Leiner Health Products, Conocophillips Company, Heinz, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing.

The hospital is also able to provide screenings and lectures on the employer's worksites.  If you are interested in speaking at one of our employer lectures, please call Debbie Sykes, Employer Relations Specialist, at (562) 491-9918.