Wellness

The terms wellness or health and wellness or wellness and prevention represent the absence of sickness and the prevention of many illnesses that result from unhealthy lifestyle choices. In the Encarta World English Dictionary, wellness is defined as physical well-being, especially when maintained or achieved through good diet and regular exercise. Today a growing industry in health care is looking at the “upstream” of illness or how many serious health care issues could be averted if providers of health care understood and practiced “wellness medicine” rather than “sickness medicine.”

As those born between 1947 and 1960, the baby boomers, age, health care and technology must advance to take care of a growing number of chronic illnesses. However, this generation of people is also the most informed and proactive in dealing with health care issues. Through advancements in the dissemination of information through the Internet, people are better empowered to keep and maintain good health. These people are also more informed of the cost of health care than ever before, and with the influence of managed care and medical savings accounts, the logical approach is to stay healthy both for physical and financial reasons.

The next generation of health care is evolving to deal with the demands of this population of consumers. The new paradigm in health care delivery systems should include as its very core a philosophy and a facility centered on prevention and wellness. These “centers of wellness” as stated in Wellness Centers by Gallup define where the emphasis of all health care providers should start. With the aging of the population and people living longer, if the model does not change to one of prevention and wellness, our acute care institutions will not be sufficient to handle the number of sick patients.

Innovative health care delivery systems have begun to include outpatient wellness centers in the continuum of care. A very successful example of such a center is the Akron General Health and Wellness Center in Akron, Ohio. Akron General Medical Center is a 511-bed tertiary care teaching hospital whose administration, with the help of physician leadership, changed its mission from acute sick care to true “health” care in 1996. The center is located 12 miles from the main facility, covers 190,000 square feet, and has been rated the number one health and wellness center in the United States for design and programmatic development. The mission of the facility is based on community education, health maintenance, prevention, rehabilitation back to health, and wellness. The hub of the center is “Lifestyles,” a medically supervised exercise facility integrated with rehabilitative services. Since the center opened in 1996, Akron General has been recognized as the leader of wellness services in the area.

There are now over 400 medical fitness centers in the United States, and the number is growing. The 21st-century hospital system must include a wellness component to be viable. The cost of sick care is out of control and in spite of all efforts to curb expenditures and control costs on the delivery side, real savings will not be realized until the emphasis changes from sick care to wellness and prevention.

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