BeWell, the UVA Health System employee wellness initiative, has enrolled thousands of eligible employees and their spouses since it began in 2016. Thanks to your ongoing support, we’ve seen consistently favorable results among participants in some key clinical measures, including lower cholesterol and blood pressure as well as weight loss.
“Primary care providers have been exceptionally good at giving us recommendations for goal setting and the communication back and forth between our teams has been beneficial for us – and hopefully for them as well,” says Charlotte Perkins, Chief Development Officer. “We appreciate providers’ willingness to partner with us.”
The BeWell program now provides even more resources to better meet the needs of participants and their providers. Improvements include:
- Rolling enrollment, making it easier for eligible participants to join throughout the year
- Elimination of biometric screening (now completed only at provider discretion during the wellness visit)
- Faster payout for participants for completing the health risk assessment and wellness exams
- Social determinants of health questionnaire upon enrollment provides greater insight for providers and a link to resources
- CDC-certified PT2 groups for men and women to provide support and education for pre-diabetics
- Livongo for diabetic participants, which provides free strips, lancets, glucometers and 24/7 year-round support by certified diabetes educators
- Fresh Farmacy, providing fresh produce to facilitate healthy shopping, eating, cooking and resolve food insecurities
- Behavioral health care provided by licensed clinical social workers (all actively enrolled participants are provided, as needed, with up to six counseling sessions each calendar year).
In addition, the BeWell initiative has expanded to include patients recently released from the hospital. In an effort to reduce readmissions and improve outcomes, the Interactive Home Monitoring (IHM) program now provides the following resources:
- Remote patient monitoring reviewed daily with needs immediately addressed by the program RN and ANP
- Pharmacy reconciliation
- Depression screening
- Social determinants of health screening
- Follow-up calls by patient advocates to ensure compliance with discharge instructions, resource needs and to respond quickly to specific concerns of patients and their caregivers
- Transportation for follow-up appointments related to the inpatient stay
- Follow-up with their primary care physician, including a 30-day overview of actions, recommendations and assessment of potential future needs
- Transitional Care Management (TCM) calls completed by the BeWell nurse to make sure patients 65+ who have Medicare FFS are properly managed post-hospitalization, which includes providing education, addressing gaps in care and services, completing a medication review and initiating a follow-up appointment with the primary care provider within 14 days of discharge.
- Behavioral healthcare with licensed clinical social workers (all actively enrolled participants are provided with up to six counseling sessions per calendar year).
For more information about BeWell, call 434.243.6388, email bewell@virginia.edu or visit uvahealth.com/bewell.