SMART Health™ Workshop
Helping people to understand how to be a better-informed healthcare consumers goes beyond passing out pamphlets, directing individuals to Web sites, or holding passive lunch-n-learns. It requires training and practice. Recognizing this, Oswald Companies created the SMART Health Workshop – a proprietary, hands-on consumerism training experience. Clients that have implemented this unique program are seeing immediate reductions in unnecessary medical and Rx utilization, lower overall healthcare costs, and less employee time away from work.
Benefits of the SMART Health Workshop
- Reduced healthcare costs
- Decreased out-of-pocket expenses for employees
- Time saved due to reduced healthcare visits
- Increased patient empowerment and accountability
- Improved employee satisfaction with healthcare benefits
- Sets the stage for health promotion and preventive programs
How SMART Health works
The workshop is led by a professional nurse facilitator who uses an interactive learning approach designed to fully engage participants. Each participant receives a SMART Health checkbook with a “balance” of $1,000. Teams of participants move through structured training activities focused on three core skills: understanding the medical urgency/cost continuum, brand vs. generic Rx choices, and using self-care resources.
Participants take turns choosing healthcare scenarios, such as: Suppose you have certain symptoms. Which would you choose: an ER visit, doctor visit, or a visit to your self-care guide?
With each healthcare “purchase,” participants remit a check for the full amount so they understand the true cost. The nurse facilitator leads participants in sharing and discussing their healthcare scenarios, choices, and expenditures. A review of learning objectives helps each participant take action based on his or her own workshop experience.
"Oswald Companies' nurse-facilitated SMART Health Workshop gave our employees essential training to become more assertive healthcare consumers. The innovative hands-on design of the workshops with pay-as-you-play simulated healthcare transactions and self-care scenarios promoted powerful employee engagement and discussion. The six-month post-workshop evaluation results were outstanding. Participants made real-world changes in their healthcare decision making by avoiding unnecessary emergency room and office visits, and switching from brand name to generic prescriptions. We realized an excellent return on investment and our employees enjoyed and appreciated this unique offering."
- Gary Kupec,
Director of HR, Shiloh Industries