Wellness clinics play a pivotal role in the transforming health status and help in bringing better outcomes of the employees' of an organization. Having a wellness clinic at workplace is an opportunity for the employees' to understand the concepts of health promotion and prevention, in addition to out-patient department. The article shares the experience of wellness clinic established in one of the multinational organization.

1. Preventive and promotive health initiatives: An experience of a wellness
clinic in southern India

2. Original Article
Preventive and promotive health initiatives: An
experience of a wellness clinic in southern India
Rohin Rameswarapu a,*
, K. Surendranath Sai b
, Upasna Kamineni c
a
Technical Consultant, Apollo Life, India
b
Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, India
c
Executive Director, Apollo Life, India
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 5 January 2015
Accepted 13 January 2015
Available online xxx
Keywords:
Wellness clinics
Preventive healthcare
Lifestyle diseases
a b s t r a c t
Introduction: Wellness clinics play a pivotal role in the transforming health status and help
in bringing better outcomes of the employees' of an organization. Having a wellness clinic
at workplace is an opportunity for the employees' to understand the concepts of health
promotion and prevention, in addition to out-patient department. The article shares the
experience of wellness clinic established in one of the multinational organization.
Materials and methods: Data was gathered from 3 wellness clinics which are across the
Hyderabad city of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. The wellness clinics were headed by
medical officers, whose primary responsibilities were to manage medical and surgical
emergencies, managing referrals, assisting in audits, conducting various preventive health
talks and health promotion initiatives for the associates of the organization.
Results: There were a total of 6 health talks, about 700 vaccinations, 3 wellness workshops
were conducted on healthy heart, eye and ear care and first aid training. Annual medical
examination was performed to a total of 1028 the employees.
Conclusion: Preventive health and wellness initiatives through medical rooms can un-
equivocally augment health outcomes among employees. Employers should look at
various initiatives in promoting health at work place.
Copyright © 2015, Indraprastha Medical Corporation Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Wellness clinics play a pivotal role in the transforming health
status and help in bringing better outcomes of the employees'
of an organization. Majority of the Indian population is young,
productive and mostly in middle age, who are at risk of
developing chronic lifestyle diseases due their nature of work,
dietary habits, familial history and stress. To combat the
present rise in non-communicable lifestyle diseases among
young work force of India, effective interventional strategies
should be in place at various operational levels. Employers'
have the responsibility to ensure the employees' are not
attending to office due to sickness absenteeism and work to
the optimal levels, that the productivity is not compromised.
Employers' have been willing to try out new health and
wellness initiatives and venture in newer directions for
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 9989709604.
E-mail address: dr.rohin.r@gmail.com (R. Rameswarapu).
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apme
a p o l l o m e d i c i n e x x x ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 e3
Please cite this article in press as: Rameswarapu R, et al., Preventive and promotive health initiatives: An experience of a
wellness clinic in southern India, Apollo Medicine (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apme.2015.01.002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apme.2015.01.002
0976-0016/Copyright © 2015, Indraprastha Medical Corporation Ltd. All rights reserved.

3. betterment of the health of the employees'. Having a wellness
clinic at workplace is an opportunity for the employees' to
understand the concepts of health promotion and prevention,
in addition to out-patient department. Apollo Life, as an or-
ganization conscientiously focussed on providing solutions on
integrative health and wellness services for manufacturing
and IT sector organizations across India through occupational
health centres and wellness clinics respectively. The article
shares the experience of wellness clinic established in one of
the multinational organization.
2. Materials & methods
Apollo Life is an organization pioneering in health and well-
ness and the first of its kind in the preventive health care
space. The present article shares experiences from wellness
clinics located in the establishments of one of the largest and
global leaders of pharmaceutical sector. Data was gathered
from 3 wellness clinics which are across the Hyderabad city of
Andhra Pradesh in southern India. The wellness clinics were
headed by medical officers, whose primary responsibilities
were to manage medical and surgical emergencies, managing
referrals, assisting in audits, conducting various preventive
health talks and health promotion initiatives for the associates
of the organization. The clinic also had paramedic assisting
the medical officer who would dispense medications and help
in replenishing supplies to occupational health centres.
Monthly based theme on various health posters on aspects
of communicable and non-communicable diseases, e-flyers
on importance of hand & personal hygiene; respiratory dis-
eases, smoking, hypertension and diabetes were organized.
The clinic was functional 8 h/day and five days per week.
Yearly health calendar was circulated internally for the doc-
tors and paramedics to help build awareness among associ-
ates and empower them with concepts of primary prevention
and advantages of treatment adherence. The cafeterias had
televisions and power point slides regarding common topics
related health were displayed. Pregnancy and its complica-
tions, nutrition and stress at work place were some of the
popular topics vouched by employees'.
During the 9AMe5PM, when the majority of the associates
were present and working in the facility, health talks were
conducted using AV aids and power point presentations.
Health talks were for duration of 45 min with 15 min of
question and answers. Counselling was given to the associates
on various health issues like importance of treatment adher-
ence in chronic disease management, smoking cessation,
stress, nutrition and safe sexual practices. Practical demon-
stration and mock drills were conducted to improve associates
capacity in handling on floor medical emergencies. The as-
sociates were taught about basic life support and emergency
evacuation. After completion, volunteers were enrolled as a
part of emergency response teams (ERT's). Vaccinations were
done as a part of health and wellness initiatives. Influenza
vaccines were administered to the employees'.
All the important health days like world hepatitis day, world
heart day, world health day and breast cancer awareness week
were celebrated and health talks on the concerned topics were
delivered to the associates. Physical activity promotion
activities like “Fitness Championship” and “Get Fit” campaigns
were successfully launched and had observed high participa-
tion rates. A feedback box was also placed in the wellness clinic
tofurtherimprovetheservicequalityandactivitiesundertaken.
3. Results
During the period 2012e2013, a total of 2627 employees'
participated in the health and wellness activities. There were
a total of 6 health talks, about 700 vaccinations, 3 wellness
workshops were conducted on healthy heart, eye and ear care
and first aid training. Annual medical examination was per-
formed to a total of 1028 the employees.
Other benefits were lifestyle modifications to combat
stress, irregular eating habits, smoking, alcohol dependency,
safe sexual practices, what to expect during pregnancy and
lack of physical activity. Associates were also briefed about
vector borne disease control and prevention, healthy heart
and road safety etiquettes.
4. Discussion
The concept of preventive and promotive health care plays a
key role in our day to day lives.1
This approach implies that
preventive healthcare principle can be applied in all organi-
zations and at all levels. Earlier conception of hospitals and
clinics as “Ivory Towers of Disease” is changing drastically,
due to an initiative started by World Health Organization in
1986 termed as Health Promoting Hospitals.2,3
This concept of health promotion is gradually being
adopted by all healthcare providers, and Apollo Life, Apollo
Hospitals Enterprise Limited is a forerunner and a pioneer in
providing preventive services in this area.4
The overall func-
tioning and existence of the clinic incorporating the wellness
initiatives is bestowing healthy lifestyles and behavioural
modification among the associates.5
The services of wellness clinics helped in transforming the
knowledge, attitude and practice of the medical conditions
among the associates.5,6
It was supported by the doctors and
paramedics by placing greater emphasis on preventive aspect
of healthcare. In most of the healthcare facilities of India, cli-
nicians are over-burdened by the work load in out-patient de-
partments.7
Adoption of these practices will help in the
reducing the incidence and prevalence of disease in the com-
munityandinnovative &integratedmedicalapproach hastobe
adopted by the medical fraternity in patient counselling, health
education and empowering them with basic life support skills.
Our experience, of establishing wellness clinics among
these multinational companies is an example of Theory of
Diffuse Innovation.8
This theory states that, initially response
of community to any innovation is disquieted. In early stages
very few acceptors join the venture. The promoters are jittery
and edgy about the participation rates and success of the
initiative. This was also corroborated in our effort where after
the initial slow response the attendance picked up in for
various wellness activities.
The model of wellness clinics can further aid to bridge the
existing healthcare gaps in knowledge, attitude and practice
a p o l l o m e d i c i n e x x x ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 e32
Please cite this article in press as: Rameswarapu R, et al., Preventive and promotive health initiatives: An experience of a
wellness clinic in southern India, Apollo Medicine (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apme.2015.01.002

4. among the employees and their dependants.5
This would
empower them to take greater omphalic role in self-care,
knowing their numbers and treatment adherence, which
could be bolstered with training and support to achieve sus-
tainability. The returns on this investment are humongous
with regards to patient satisfaction and quintessentially
improved health outcomes9,10
(Table 1).
5. Conclusions
Preventive health and wellness initiatives through medical
rooms can unequivocally augment health outcomes among
employees. The study also demonstrated that different groups
of employees are attracted to different types of health pro-
motion activities. Both worksite-level and employee-level
factors have significant influences on health. Similar models
can be replicated among various sectors to initiate health
promotion activities at work place and Employers should look
at various initiatives in promoting health at work place.
6. Limitations
The study only focusses on employees of an organization from
pharmaceutical sector. More studies are required to establish
the effectiveness of wellness clinics cutting across various
industrial sectors.
Conflicts of interest
All authors have none to declare.
r e f e r e n c e s
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Table 1 e Analysis of health & wellness clinic.
Input Process Output
Manpower
- Medical officer
- Paramedic
Infrastructure
- Audio-visual aids, posters, charts,
televisions.
Financial support
- The cost was borne by the employer.
- First aid training
- Healthy heart workshop
- Master health check up
- Influenza vaccination
- Managing stress at work
- Health education and awareness
campaigns
- Smoking cessation workshop
- Eye and ear camp
- ERT's were formed for each wing.
- 650 employees participated.
- 1028 employees participated.
- 705 employees vaccinated.
- 10 lectures on various health topics.
- 2 competitions (Fitness Champion and Get Fit campaign).
- 40% of the employees are overweight or obese.
- 30% of the associates were pre-diabetic.
- 17% of the employees had elevated blood pressure.
a p o l l o m e d i c i n e x x x ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 e3 3
Please cite this article in press as: Rameswarapu R, et al., Preventive and promotive health initiatives: An experience of a
wellness clinic in southern India, Apollo Medicine (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apme.2015.01.002

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