Healthwise Wins National Workplace Awards

Clear Mission, Cool Culture Make Healthwise a Great Place to Work


WASHINGTON, DC and BOISE, ID -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 5, 2007 --Give employees a mission they can believe in. Add a culture of respect, teamwork, and high integrity. Throw in healthy-snack Wednesdays, an all-staff Wellness Day, a dozen or so friendly dogs, "walk-about" meetings, and Connie, the receptionist, and you've got the recipe for an award-winning workplace.

Healthwise, a nonprofit organization that has been helping people make better health decisions since 1975, won a national 2007 Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award on March 3rd. The American Psychological Association presented Don Kemper, Healthwise founder and CEO, with the award in Washington, D.C., for implementing unique programs for employee well-being and productivity. Healthwise was also recognized recently with a National Alfred P. Sloan Award for Workplace Flexibility.

According to Mr. Kemper, "Our mission and culture are at the heart of all we do, every day. Our mission is to help people make better health decisions. Our culture is built upon three pillars: respect, teamwork, and do the right thing."

Nearly 90 million times a year, people turn to Healthwise® information for help in making better health decisions. Healthwise books are in more than 30 million homes. Healthwise content is on the Web sites of WebMD, Yahoo!, MSN, and all ten of the top ten managed care organizations.

Healthwise Information Therapy (Ix®)

"We've earned a reputation for being both grounded in our mission and continually ready to innovate," said Mr. Kemper. "We were leaders of the self-care movement in the mid-'70s. We helped lead the wellness movement in the '80s. We were there at the start of the health Internet in the '90s. And we are leading the new concept of Information Therapy today."

Information Therapy (Ix) is the prescription of specific information to people, at just the right time to help them make better health decisions. So instead of searching for information, people receive the information they need as part of the process of care. Scheduling a test? Get an Ix message on how to prepare. Receiving lab results? Get information on how to interpret the results. Considering surgery? Get help on deciding if it is right for you.

"Externally, we are trying to transform the role of the patient in health care," Kemper said, "and, internally, we just want to have a good, healthy place to work."

Note to editors: Watch a short video about Healthwise and a brief Flash® demonstration of the Healthwise Ix Coach at www.healthwise.org/phwa.aspx.

More about the National Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards (www.phwa.org)

(Russ Newman, APA practice directorate, 1.800.374.2723)

The American Psychological Association's National Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award program is designed to recognize organizations that make a commitment to programs and policies that foster employee health and well-being while enhancing organizational performance and productivity. The award program highlights a variety of workplaces, large and small, profit and nonprofit, in diverse geographical settings. Applicants are evaluated on their efforts in the following five areas:

--  Employee Involvement
--  Work-Life Balance
--  Employee Growth and Development
--  Health and Safety
--  Employee Recognition
    
More about the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Workplace Flexibility (www.whenworkworks.org)

The Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility are location-based awards that recognize employers for their innovative workplace effectiveness and flexibility practices using a rigorous scoring methodology that is largely based on employees' views. At many of the winning sites, employees have taken an active role in suggesting these strategies.

When Work Works is a nationwide initiative on workplace effectiveness and workplace flexibility that is designed to share research and highlight promising practice on what makes work "work" in the 21st Century. It is a project of Families and Work Institute sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in partnership with the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Twiga Foundation.

About Healthwise

Healthwise is a nonprofit organization that has been helping people make better health decisions since 1975. Nearly 90 million times a year, people turn to Healthwise information for help in making health decisions. Healthwise works with health plans, disease management companies, hospitals, employers, and clinics to provide decision-support and self-management information to the people they serve. Healthwise is leading a major change in health care to prescribe information therapy to patients as part of every health care encounter. To learn more, visit www.healthwise.org or call 1.800.706.9646.

Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.

© Copyright 2007, Healthwise, Incorporated.

1.800.706.9646

www.healthwise.org

Contact Information: Healthwise Contact: Brenda Foster Phone: 208.331.6963 E-mail: Email Contact