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Jul

3

If Cleveland Clinic cares about wellness, they’ll hire ONLY smokers

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If the Cleveland Clinic is going to treat the act of smoking as an illness or a habit related to health that is undesirable and in need of medical (physical or mental) attention, to the extent that the Clinic offers smoking cessation methods to its current employees who smoke, then they should be consistent in their approach to recruiting employees who may otherwise be qualified, except for the fact that they smoke.

What am I talking about?

Read this statement:

Wellness is a somewhat intangible concept, which makes selling it to employees a daunting task. For that reason, companies toss out incentives that workers understand – such as cash and discounted health care premiums – to incite workers to get healthier.

Yet if businesses are betting on wellness incentives to act as a game-changer in the health care cost area, analysts say organizations must be creative and understand how workers define wellness and good health.

The article that follows these two paragraphs, from the July issue of Employee Benefit News (not yet online but should be available as a pdf eventually from that website), doesn’t say anything about not hiring people who smoke, or aren’t well. It explains how to be where the client – in this case, the employee (and I’m extending it to potential, qualified employee) – is.

And this is the number one cardinal rule of dealing with these cross-over issues that involve physical and mental well-being: you must meet the person where they are, not force them to come to what you want.

How does this apply to the Clinic?

If the Clinic’s goal truly is wellness – that is, the individual’s wellness (as opposed to the wellness of the Clinic’s bottom line, which, yesterday, the new Chief Wellness Officer for the Clinic, Dr. Michael Roizen, said on WCPN’s Sound of Ideas was not the issue) – then refusing to hire anyone who smokes, while still allowing employees who do smoke to remain on staff, fails miserably in addressing an individual’s health.

Those folks will continue to smoke – they just won’t be employed by the Clinic.

If the Clinic really wanted to impact wellness, as well as hire qualified individuals, they’d actually put smokers at the top of the list for new hires. And then offer them incentives, as described in the Benefit News article, and increase the number of people who successfully quit smoking.

Now that would show a true dedication to wellness.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:32 pm July 3rd, 2007 in Politics | 6 Comments 

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Jul

3

Beverly Sills, RIP

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The image of Beverly Sills that will remain in my mind is from Pigoletto:


But she was so much more.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:10 pm July 3rd, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off 

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Jul

3

Remains of the Day, 7-2-07

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I’m skipping what you already know because…you already know it (think Scooter Libby, Jim Trakas, school funding amendment).

1. Anyone know if any Ohio papers are doing anything remotely like this? We know there are more than a few folks out there who are already doing hyper-local coverage.

2. I know this will sound weird coming from me, but there’s just something off about making millions of dollars on Sundays from the lottery.

3. At least one poll’s numbers indicate overwhelming support for female political leaders. The poll wouldn’t mean much to me except that The White House Project was involved, and that’s an initiative I’ve really come to care about over the last several months. Keep your eyes out for a Go Run Ohio.

4. Museum of the History of Polish Jews begins to rise. The completion of it would be a good excuse to go to Poland for me. My grandfather (and later his brother, another Cleveland Sam Miller – whom the Forest City Sam Miller recalled to me a couple of months ago, it was bizarre!) came here from Poland in the mid-1910s. I know many stories. But to go there? That would be quite a trip.

5. Fertility in the Jewish population was the subject of this AJC blog post and a salon gathering of young Jews in NYC. I’ve lived with hearing about this issue and intermarriage for literally decades so it’s interesting to see how it has or hasn’t changed since the late 1960s.

6. Muslim female tennis players. I really like The Media Line for news in the Middle East. Here’s another item in The Media Line, regarding a new report from Human Rights Watch:

HRW: Israel and Palestinians Both Show ‘Appalling Disregard For Civilian Life’

A new report issued by Human Rights Watch, an American-based leader among human rights movements, accuses both Israel and the Palestinian Authority of an “appalling disregard for civilian life,” citing Israel artillery and Palestinian rocket attacks. In the case of Israel, HRW was critical of its policy of reducing the safety range of artillery fire – the permissible distance between civilians and targets. According to HRW, most of the civilian casualties that Israel inflicted upon Palestinians came after the new policy was put into effect. Regarding the Palestinians, HRW pointed out that a large number of Palestinians were victims of Palestinian rockets because of the lack of reliability of the home-made rockets and their placement close to civilian populations.

7. Fortune Small Business’s list of the fastest growing small businesses includes three from Ohio, two in Cincy and one in Columbus. Rah. (not)

8. Don’t forget to keep an eye on Give & Take, a blog that watches the nonprofit world.

9. Women coming into ownership of car dealerships as the dad’s pass them on creates interesting new showrooms.

And that’s the Monday that was.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:52 am July 3rd, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off 

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