What a health day at the office can safely offer

What a health day can safely offer

A health day can safely offer checks with strong evidence behind them, given by registered clinicians, with each result going to the person alone. Blood pressure readings and flu vaccination are the clearest examples.

The US Preventive Services Task Force gives screening for high blood pressure in adults aged 18 or older its highest grade, an A, and recommends a check every year from the age of 40 or for anyone at increased risk [1]. A few minutes in a private room can find people who have not had a reading in years.

The World Health Organization describes vaccination as the best way to prevent influenza and recommends it every year, because immunity from the vaccine fades over time [2]. It estimates around a billion cases of seasonal influenza a year, including 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness, and notes that epidemics bring high levels of absence from work [2].

How many people take part, and what helps

Plan for around half your team to take part, and make the day easy to reach. A study of American workplace wellness programmes for the US Department of Labor found that 46% of people in the firms surveyed had a clinical screening or completed a health risk assessment [3].

The same study found that incentives for completing an assessment were effective, particularly above $50, and that each extra $10 was associated with a 1.6 percentage point rise in completion [3]. Time and place matter as well. Hold the day where people already work, with fixed slots from early morning to early evening that anyone can take without asking a manager.

What a health day should leave out, and the risks

Leave out blanket testing that has no route to a doctor afterwards. A Cochrane review of 17 trials with 251,891 participants found that general health checks had little or no effect on total mortality, and its authors concluded that such checks are unlikely to be beneficial [4].

A long panel of tests run for everyone will flag some results outside the normal range by chance, and each of those needs a doctor to explain it. Without that conversation, some people leave worried by a result that means little, and others leave falsely reassured by a normal one.

Keep scans and genetic tests, and anything else that needs interpretation, inside a proper consultation, where a doctor can explain what a result does and does not mean.

Consent and privacy on the day

Every check is voluntary and needs the person’s consent at the time, and the result belongs to them alone. The company learns how many people came and nothing about any one of them.

Health information is special category data under UK GDPR, which gives it extra protection [5]. The regulator’s guidance for employers on workers’ health sets out what an employer must and should do when it handles that information [6]. The simplest way to stay well inside it is for the employer never to hold the results at all.

Use a private room for every check and keep queues away from desks. Give each result on paper or in a private message to the person.

Follow-up with a doctor, and who a health day is not for

Every result that needs attention goes to a doctor, with a named appointment and a date. A single raised blood pressure reading is a reason to measure again, and the Task Force recommends confirming readings outside the clinic before treatment begins [1].

Agree before the day who will see each person, where, how soon and who pays, so nobody leaves with a number and nowhere to take it.

A health day is a first look for people who feel well. Anyone who feels unwell today, or who already has a condition under a doctor’s care, is better served by an appointment of their own, and a clinician checks suitability before every vaccination.

A checklist for planning a health day

Use this list with whoever runs the day, and ask for each answer in writing.

• Choose checks with strong evidence, such as blood pressure readings and flu vaccination.
• Use registered clinicians and record consent from each person.
• Give each result to the person alone, with a plain explanation of what it means.
• Arrange a doctor’s appointment within days for anyone whose result needs one.
• Report attendance to the company as totals only, with small groups left out.
• Offer slots across the whole day, including for people who travel or work remotely.
• Ask people afterwards what they would value next year.

What The Wellness for teams does

The Wellness for teams is one membership for the whole firm, its leaders and their families, with inpatient, outpatient and dental care, diagnostics and health programmes in 13 cities. A concierge arranges every appointment with GMC registered doctors, so a result from a health day turns into a consultation the same week.

The company receives one invoice a year and sees anonymised reporting only, with small groups left out, under a data processing agreement. Leaders can start in one morning and the firm within 10 days.