HCGH President and CEO Vic Broccolino accepted a silver-level Healthy Howard Healthy Workplaces Award from Howard County Executive Ken Ulman and the County’s Health Officer Dr. Peter Beilenson on October 5 at The Bain Center in Columbia.

As one of the largest healthcare providers in Howard County, our mission is to provide the highest quality care to improve the health of our entire community. Our employees are certainly an important part of that community, and providing a healthy workplace that promotes employee well-being is a vital part of our mission.

The Healthy Workplaces Program recognizes and assists Howard County workplaces, large and small, that are committed to improving employee health and well-being across six main categories: nutrition, physical activity, culture of wellness, mental health, environmental health, and safety. The Healthy Howard staff helps companies and organizations by recognizing efforts in their certification program and also connects them with resources to take their wellness efforts to the next level.

Some of the programs HCGH was recognized for are:

• An annual leave bank that allows employees to use accrued annual leave for personal and emergency reasons as well as a paid short-term disability program
• Regular on-site health education programs, such as free smoking cessation and stress management classes
• Free flu vaccine clinics
• Company teams that participate in health-focused fundraising events
• On-site Yoga classes and walking teams such as Get Active/Stay Active Howard County programs
• Employee Assistance Plan that provides confidential and professional assistance with family issues, stress, substance abuse, grief, and legal and financial issues.
• Employee of the month and employee of the year programs to recognize employee achievements
• Flexible scheduling to meet business needs of departments and personal needs of employees
• Healthy food choices in cafeteria and vending machines as well as nutrition education programs
• Incident-reporting program for workplace safety concerns.
• Eco-healthy cleaning products for hospital

Next year, HCGH will be eligible for a Gold Award, offered to previous Silver Award winners who have further expanded their health and wellness programs and experienced a positive change in worksite wellness.

If you want your workplace to be listed among the healthiest places to work in 2011, visit the Howard County Health Department website. You can download the Healthy Workplaces Toolkit to begin implementing activities that will make your business healthier and also the Healthy Workplace application form.

From July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010, HCGH delivered the second highest number of babies ever: 3,455 births, which is just 78 deliveries short of the record set in 2004. This represents an increase of 321 deliveries, or 12 percent over the prior fiscal year. With the blizzards of 2010, we are expecting our “baby boom” to continue through the fall.

Our goal at HCGH is to create a family-centered experience for our new mothers and their families. From our attractively decorated private rooms, all with private baths, to cookies in the afternoon, we want our patients to experience a healthy labor and delivery in a relaxed but medically secure environment. Two of our recovery rooms are designed specifically for cesarean births and our expanded Center for Maternal and Fetal Medicine offers comprehensive, state-of-the-art perinatal care for mothers with high-risk pregnancies. For our neediest infants, our 18-bed Level IIIb Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is ready with state-of-the-art medical equipment and a highly trained staff.

HCGH offers birthing center tours and sibling tours as well as a number of classes for expectant parents. We believe that the more mothers and families know about the process, the more comfortable they will feel at delivery.

For more information about classes and tours, visit our website or call the HCGH Wellness Center at 410-740-7601.