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Garland Wellness Program Worth Its Weight Jacquielynn Floyd: Garland wellness program worth its weight 07:45 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 GARLAND – At 280-plus pounds, veteran firefighter Joe Estes was too fat to fight fires. He could barely reach around his own stomach to help lift a patient on a stretcher into an ambulance. When he made lieutenant and transferred to the city fire marshal's office, he figured his days on the front line were over. Resigned to spending the rest of his career sitting behind a desk, he spent the next year and half packing on another 30 pounds. At 40, he was an uncomfortably big man. He was also a walking time bomb. That was six months ago. Since then, he has lost 75 pounds. He's getting ready to transfer back to active shift duty. And he's no longer the kind of high-risk employee whose physical liabilities are costing employers an ever-bigger bundle in health insurance premiums. Lt. Estes is the star but by no means the sole success in a pilot "wellness" program the city of Garland tried out on 30 employees. In six months, the 30 lost a total of more than 700 pounds. They lost an average of 19 cholesterol points per person and an average of 10 points off their blood pressure readings. Some were able to stop using medication for hypertension or diabetes. Most of those who hadn't been exercising suddenly felt energetic enough to start. They report feeling better. They have taken fewer sick days. And – of particular interest to their employer and their insurers – the cost of their medical care dropped an average of $400 to $500 a person. If you could guarantee your insurance company you'd cost them $1,000 less in payouts every year, they'd be interested, too. "If I don't tell people about this, I think I'll bust inside," said Garland benefits manager Rick French, who started the program to slow the fiscal hemorrhage of city budget money for spiraling employee health-care costs. Mr. French, like countless other benefits managers in the public and private sectors, has spent plenty of time trading theories with colleagues about how to limit meteoric health-care costs. He's heard plenty of sales pitches from contractors and consultants. In the end, he decided to go looking for exactly the program he wanted, instead of waiting for it to come to him. He found Marcia Upson, a family nurse practitioner who specializes in weight loss and healthy nutrition. Ms. Upson, who accepts client referrals from Dallas-area doctors, was unsure at first about contracting with a city, but Mr. French talked her into it. "I teach people how to eat normal food," Ms. Upson said. That's it – no pills, no protein shakes, no marathon gym workouts, no list of off-limits chow. It sounded too – well – simple. "Nobody can beat the stats," she said merrily. Seated at her elbows, Lt. Estes and Mr. French (the latter has lost 30 pounds himself) nodded in earnest agreement. In a series of classes and counseling sessions, Ms. Upson got the participating employees to distinguish genuine hunger from the gazillion other reasons people sit down and pig out. She taught them they can eat anything they want, in reasonable quantities and at sensible intervals. Mr. French got the city's insurance companies to help underwrite the cost of the program, theorizing that, if it worked, they would get their money back in claims costs. (He has an innovative noodle for this kind of thing; last year, he established an on-site medical clinic for Garland employees). The results have persuaded city authorities to make the wellness program permanent. This is good news for other employees who are now pounding the door down to get in; the waiting list is more than 100. It sounds both simple and far-fetched, but they insist it's true: Mr. French sends Ms. Upson his highest-risk employees, and she sends healthy people back. Joe Estes, former fat man, is living proof. When we talked this week, I asked him what he had just eaten for lunch: Watercress salad? Grilled fish? A Kleenex? "Chicken-fried steak," he said easily. He has it every Tuesday. How about that? People spend piles of cash and go on crazy diets; every day we hear more dire and discouraging news about how Americans are so sedentary and obese that fitness seems like a hopeless pipe dream – and a bunch of city workers over in Garland seem to be finding that it really doesn't have to be so complicated. "You're right, it doesn't," Mr. French said. "It's just plain ol' good common horse sense." E-mail jfloyd@dallasnews.com |
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