San Diego’s health care providers are making it easier for people to be healthy. Computer access has prompted medical providers to offer programs and clinics to help people build on the basics and avoid becoming patients.

For many years, wellness care was frowned upon by the medical world. Doctors were supposed to be taking care of the sick, not spending time on the well. That has changed. Information on stress, diet, nutrition, pregnancy, chronic conditions and smoking has paved the way for clinics and workshops that offer information, support and structure. Now health care providers specialize in wellness programs to keep patients healthy and out of the hospital. It is not only the right thing to do, but good business. Sick people are expensive; healthy patients recover quicker from medical procedures.

Some health care providers are expanding on their efforts, devising methods for taking their programs into the workplace. Not every working adult can or will make time for wellness programs, but they all have to go to work.

Following is an overview of what is offered.

Six Decades Of Experience

Kaiser Permanente is a wellness pioneer, offering programs since the 1940s. “Kaiser sort of invented (wellness),” says Silvia Wallace, Kaiser media relations manager. The health care provider operates on the belief that health and maintenance go hand in hand. “Why not have health care available before people get sick?” Wallace says. “It was a radical idea at the time.”

Kaiser’s Positive Choice Wellness Center in Clairemont provides services on smoking cessation, weight management, stress reduction, fitness testing, exercise classes, personal training, walking groups, healthy cooking, biofeedback and creative arts therapy. More than 1 million health appraisals have been done by the provider in the last 15 years. “It’s the most complete physical you can get,” Wallace says. A virtual Health and Wellness Center is maintained online, providing members daily tips and information on healthy thinking.

As soon as a new member joins, Kaiser recommends a physical. “It sets the patient off on the right foot,” says Dr. Albert Ray, a family practitioner and health and patient educator at Kaiser Permanente. “We, as an organization, are interested in being a partner in (members’) health right from the start.”

Beginning with the physical, members and doctors can start to plan a wellness strategy. Quarterly mailings discuss classes and tests that are considered preventive maintenance. “This is as important as treating a problem,” Ray says of detecting symptoms early and changing lifestyles to avoid life and health threatening habits.

The first programs Kaiser took to its business members were on-site flu shot clinics. Employers were receptive, and now traveling programs include cholesterol screenings and stress and disease management clinics.

Since January, Kaiser has been pushing its Employee Wellness Program in-house. Kaiser has been “taking wellness programs to the workplace for its customers for years and thought why not do it for our own?” Wallace says.

Kaiser always has urged staff and doctors to be healthy. However, the new effort takes into consideration that not everyone has time to make a daily gym visit or pack a healthy lunch. “It’s got to be nice and simple,” Ray says. To kick off the program, Kaiser provided pedometers at only $5 each to staff and created a Web site for participants to sign up to walk in groups, chart their progress and compete for prizes. Also available are booklets revealing the nutrition, calorie and fat content in fast food. A salad bar was added to the cafeteria and a healthy menu of the day is advertised. “To educate in a way that’s successful, it has to be simple,” Ray says.

Employees are being encouraged to get a physical exam and to participate in programs at the centers. “We are trying on all fronts to get staff to be models to the members,” Ray says. Feedback on his program has been positive and Ray says he’s very encouraged to know the staff is taking it to heart.

Wellness information is available online at www.kaiserpermanente.org. Call (800) 464-4000 for membership information.

Under The Big Pavilion

Sharp Memorial has all of its wellness programs under one roof at its new Elliott and Helen Cushman Wellness Center at Sharp Memorial’s Outpatient Pavilion. The center opened last month, offering a wide variety of screenings to detect hidden illnesses. Patients have access to personal health coaching, lifestyle analysis and full body, lung, brain, heart and colorectal screening.

Run by Dr. Neil Treister, the center offers more than an annual checkup. “This is a detailed snapshot of a person’s health,” Treister says. “This gives people a view of where they are and gives them the tools to affect their future health.” Treister is the center’s medical director. With the Internet, he says, people are better informed and more interested in doing the right things. They want to know what is out there and what they should be doing. Instead of taking drugs that cause side effects, patients can do yoga and stress-reducing therapies.

Sharp works with companies to encourage their employees to come in for health screenings. Not covered by most insurance products, the wellness center is a pay-out-of-pocket service. Treister says some companies are offering incentives or copayments and some are covering the entire cost.

In addition to screenings, the center offers an array of educational programs and a health library. Ongoing health seminars are provided in two classrooms that can accommodate up to 150 people.

Staffing the Cushman Wellness Center is a team of internists, cardiologists, radiologists, gastrointestinal specialists and psychologists. A registered dietitian, exercise physiologist and health educator also are available.

Sharp also offers several worksite wellness programs. In response to businesses’ requests, a Sharp team may visit a company to provide health screenings, educational lectures, risk assessment, case management, consultation with worksite wellness committees and risk reduction and intervention programs. The program is relatively inexpensive, says Jennifer Collin, weight management program coordinator for Sharp. The cost may be covered by the employers or require a small copay from participants.

Visit Sharp online at www.sharp.com or call (800)-827-4277.

Get ‘Em Started Young

At Scripps, the belief is it’s never too early to learn wellness. “I do believe part of our mission speaks to wellness and health,” says Scripps CEO Chris Van Gorder. “We’d be much happier preventing things than treating things.”

Health promotion and education services are provided to more than 3,000 San Diegans each month at Scripps Well Being Centers located throughout the community. Flu shots, wellness checkups, prenatal education classes, lectures on staying healthy and caregiver support groups are just a few of the offerings.

Scripps has centers in Chula Vista, Encinitas, La Jolla and City Heights. They offer information on everything from parenting to Parkinson’s. A comprehensive health evaluation includes the necessary tests for early detection and prevention of illness. Scripps identifies lifestyle and hereditary factors and performs the necessary diagnostic tests based on age, gender and risk potential.

The Scripps Center for Executive Health, located on the Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla campus, caters to professionals. A one-stop shop, the center provides a health assessment that goes far beyond the customary physical, focusing on comprehensive health, early detection and lifestyle enhancement. These services are not covered by insurance. They are paid for on a cash basis and a complete workup runs about $2,000. The bonus: this appointment ends with a visit to a massage therapist.

Wellness doesn’t stop at the hospital’s doorway; Scripps takes wellness to businesses. A recent request from Qualcomm resulted in a Scripps doctor visiting the company to explain the SARS virus and how to protect oneself from infection. Van Gorder says the presentation was piped to every office via the Internet and participation was mandatory.

Community wellness goes beyond business. Responding to schools after the Santana High shooting incident and aiding the fire department in obtaining a helicopter all fit under the umbrella.

Scripps information is available at www.scrippshealth.org or call (800) 727-4777.

Operating under the Scripps umbrella is Mercy Hospital in Downtown San Diego. Available to its clients are the Scripps’ wellness programs and additional free classes at the City Heights Wellness Center. Classes include stress and weight management. Support groups for mothers and diabetes patients also are offered. The number for Mercy is (619) 294-8111, center details are online at www.scrippshealth.org.

Outreach In The North

Palomar Pomerado Health has been offering a wide spectrum of health education programs to North County communities for 19 years. “About 45,000 people a year are touched in some way by our community outreach,” says Judy Leitner, director of Healthsource Community Education Department. Wellness programs cover everything from CPR to diet, nutrition and exercise.

Palomar Pomerado reaches about 80,000 residents of the community through the mail. Quarterly calendars inform the community of classes and explain monthly topics. “We are committed to keeping the families of North County well,” Leitner says. One way to keep the community healthy is to get it involved. “Wellness fits in with our mission — to heal, comfort and promote health in the community,” Leitner says.

Palomar Pomerado serves 11 North County communities, runs Escondido’s 319-bed Palomar Medical Center, two skilled nursing homes, an outpatient surgical center, and home health and mental health services in addition to the 107-bed Pomerado Hospital. The hospital recognizes a need for more information after a patient walks out of the doctor’s office. The wellness programs provide patients with a basis from which to make informed decisions about their care.

New to Palomar this year is the Women’s Health Connection in Poway. The center provides information to women with questions about health issues such as menopause, childbirth, midlife transitions and nutrition. It also is a library and research center with computers hooked up to medical research databases. It features women’s support groups, offers periodic health screenings and has a positive image center for cancer patients — where women can experiment with prosthetics, wigs and clothing.

Palomar Pomerado is online at www.pphs.org and can be contacted at (800) 628-2880.

Covering health education from Oceanside to San Marcos is Tri-City Medical Center. The center provides programs and clinics that range from baby wellness to cardiac and diabetes wellness to a clinic devoted to the workplace. The Workpartners Occupational Medicine Clinic provides employers with education programs for everything from on-the-job injuries to drug screenings to ergonomics.

Reaching out to more than 800 local employers, Tri-City can provide classes on “just about any topic an employer is interested in,” says Chris Gervasi, director of occupational health at Tri-City. “We typically do them in the morning with a free breakfast. Also, we provide first aid classes and hepatitis vaccinations and training for exposure in the workplace.”

Gervasi says offering these programs is important because it not only helps keep employees healthy and the workplace safe, it keeps employers employed and business running. “About 85 percent of the area employers have less than 25 employees,” she explains. “So they need resources to help them with education. They look to someone to be their educator of workplace safety.”

Tri-City reaches out to the community and businesses with newsletters and a comprehensive Web site. Quarterly lectures are offered and classes, support groups, community education events, workshops and seminars are available to meet a variety of needs. Topics range from treating childhood illnesses to dealing with depression to reducing the risk of heart disease. Speakers include physicians and other experienced healthcare professionals.

For information, visit www.tri-citymed.com or call (800) 579-8262.

Paradise And Good Health

Taking care of South County, Paradise Valley Hospital opened its Center for Health in 1990. Everything from walking groups and smoking cessation programs to diabetes and stress management programs are available to the community. In addition to free classes at the center in National City, medical staff present information at community health fairs and provide lunchtime wellness services for local business groups, including the Lions and Rotary Club.

Paradise Valley Hospital in South County opened its Center for Health in 1990.

Jane Campbell, clinical health educator at Paradise Valley, says the smoking cessation program was used successfully by the Chula Vista county office building for employees interested in kicking the habit. Other popular worksite clinics offer blood pressure screenings, fat testing and glucose and cholesterol screenings.

Paradise Valley gets information about its classes out in a variety of ways and reports that businesses have called to see what can be done on-site for employees. Most of the programs are free. Any charges are so nominal that employers see the value of covering the cost to keep workers well.

Paradise Valley is online at www.paradisevalleyhospital.org and via phone at (619) 470-4321.

Eclectic Center Near Opening

“Wellness is a good thing; we should all have some of it,” says Dr. Lee Rice, medical director of the soon-to-open Lifewellness Institute at Alvarado Hospital. Rice is gathering resources for the center, which should open in June, and says he wants to offer an eclectic array of options that will meet the needs of the community. Nutrition, yoga, massage and music therapy are just a sampling of the services he wants to provide. He says pre-operation and post-operation patients do better after utilizing wellness programs and get to leave the hospital earlier after procedures.

Alvarado is a private, for-profit hospital. Patients usually are referred by their insurance or private care physician. Rice says the hospital is working to get insurance to pay for wellness programs, but details are not yet finalized.

Previously, wellness was available through the hospital’s outpatient programs. Company programs are being developed and executive physicals are commonly utilized by area businesses. TEC Worldwide, headquartered in San Diego, is developing a program with Alvarado for its full-time employees.

Rice says the key difference to programs he is developing is that they will include ongoing follow-up, mentoring and monitoring. “We actually will check up to see that patients are following through and seeking success.” He says it is all too common for patients’ efforts to wane in between visits to their doctor, and he wants to avoid that.

Alvarado’s Web site is www.alvaradohospital.com/CWSContent/alvaradohospital or call (619) 287-3270.

UCSD Healthcare encompasses UCSD Medical Group, UCSD Thornton Hospital in La Jolla, UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest and a growing number of outpatient facilities. Although known for its medical research, it does not focus much on general wellness programs and instead provides clinics and programs for seniors, menopausal patients, baby safety and smoking cessation. The stop smoking program provides free cessation services to state residents and provides a help line. Log on to www.health.ucsd.edu or call (800) 926-8273.

For A Better Workplace

With the ever-increasing stress at most workplaces today, a little wellness can go a long way. “Wellness is feeling good and being healthy,” says Van Gorder at Scripps. “You have a choice of what you eat and drink; it’s a responsibility. As far as bonuses these programs can provide in the workplace, who doesn’t feel better and go back to work more productive after a massage?”