Vital Signs Physical Health Checks

Reliable employee health assessments can be affected by overly optimistic or pessimistic recall of exercise and activity levels, diet, family health history and alcohol consumption (surveys find a tendency towards optimism). 

To ensure reliable employee health assessments, we encourage accurate disclosure of these health risk factors by:

• Establishing trust and rapport.
• Listening without judgement and acknowledging your employee’s feelings.

Highly predictive bio-metrics are carefully measured and input into reliable employee health assessments:

• Height / waist ratio (body shape) and height / weight ratio (Body Mass Index).
• Blood pressure, pulse and atrial fibrillation.
• Oxygen saturation level (less than 95% may indicate impaired lung function or circulation or iron deficiency).
• Good and bad cholesterol and glucose (involving  small skin prick).

All measurements are taken in compliance with clinical best practice guidelines using regularly calibrated medical equipment.  For example:

• The Cholesterol Analyser is calibrated every month by CPA (UK) Ltd (the accredited Laboratory Medicine department at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust).
• The blood pressure monitor is clinically validated by the British Hypertension Society.

Cardiovascular Health Risk.  Calculated using the QRisk2 algorithm. It is National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended for a full formal assessment of the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years.

Type 2 Diabetes Risk.  Calculated using an algorithm developed by Diabetes UK in collaboration with the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. It is NICE recommended for use by GPs and other primary healthcare professionals to predict the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes within 10 years.

Alcohol Related Health Risk.  Calculated using the AUDIT-C algorithm (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). AUDIT-C is sponsored by the World Health Organisation.

This is a non-judgemental and motivational conversation supported by:

• Fact sheets which have evolved over hundreds of plain English, jargon free conversations.  They cover subjects such as: Sleep, Diet, Alcohol, Smoking, Keeping Active, Walking, Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Cholesterol.
• Our unique expert system automatically recalculates health risk scores based upon positive lifestyle change intentions such as stopping smoking, reducing drinking, increasing physical activity and losing weight.  In this way we can have a “what if” conversation, modifying lifestyle change intentions and testing their impact on health scores before gaining lasting commitment to a final set of achievable lifestyle changes.

Our Work Wellness practitioner will recommend links to additional self-help resources, sign-posting to local contacts and referrals to specialist practitioners if they are likely to help in sustaining positive lifestyle changes.

By the end of the Vital Signs Physical Health Check we will have discussed a lot of information, answered many questions and your employee will be feeling positive and motivated. We don’t want them to lose that feeling once they’re back at their workplace.

So they’ll be able to take away a personalised report containing 11 pages of; the measures we’ve taken, the lifestyle changes we’ve discussed, their impact on health risk scores, where to find self-help resources and referral routes to get further help.  That’s a lot of information to digest, so the report carefully structures it alongside plain English guidance.

Vital Signs Physical Health Checks may not identify any significant health risks.  Alternatively, as a result of a GP referral, your employee may now be receiving some form of treatment to reduce those risks.