Jessa hospital

With over 190,000 patients in 2014, around 1,000 hospital beds, more than 3,000 employees and 350 doctors, Jessa hospital in the Limburg region is one of Flanders’ largest hospitals. The hospital’s comprehensive health policy ensures that both patients and staff are well looked after. Since 2011, Jessa hospital has been relying on Mensura for a range of services that support their policy views.

The work of hospitals never stops: hospital staff are available to patients 24 hours a day in varying shifts. With 80% of hospital workers being women, and 50% of them working part-time, this rather unique situation requires a targeted approach.

Jessa hospital is the result of a merger between hospital campuses Virga Jessa, Salvator and Sint-Ursula. It is now the largest hospital – and the second largest employer – in the Limburg region.

Jessa hospital expects their external partner for workplace prevention and protection to provide a support structure and relevant figures to help implement their health policy. They also want a wide variety of quality training courses to be available, and they need this partner to adequately address issues within a specific hospital context. Another request is that both a male and female occupational health physician are made available so that staff members can choose to see the physician they feel most at ease with.

Before making a final decision on the external department for prevention and protection they would like to partner with, Jessa hospital insisted on talking to the occupational health physician first. “We needed an occupational health physician at our premises who shares our vision. That was really important to us”, says Karel Bosmans, Director of Human Resources & Operations. “When we met Dr. Vanoeteren, who is one of the occupational health physicians at Mensura, we knew we had found the right partner.”
 

By looking after the scheduling of appointments and ensuring flexible consultation hours, Mensura has come up with a solution that perfectly addresses the issue of varying shift hours among hospital staff. Night shift workers can visit the occupational health physician at 10 p.m. if they need to. “We are almost permanently available at either of the three hospital campuses, so they can come and see us at any time”, Dr. Vanoeteren adds.

The hospital really needed this level of support. Working at a hospital is physically and mentally demanding. “The real challenge lies in keeping people happy in their jobs for 20 to 30 years despite the ever-changing working hours”, Karel Bosmans explains. “In these times where we are all expected to work longer and retire later, ergonomics and injury prevention are more important than ever. The risk of a burnout is likely higher among hospital workers than in any other industry. Mensura is always there for us, every step of the way. Their occupational health physicians and psychologist help us set up a burnout prevention programme, while their ergonomic experts are assisting our ergonomics coaches.”
 

Mensura assists the hospital with the implementation of their health policy. When visiting the occupational health physician, hospital workers are asked to complete a questionnaire about health risks. The physician also measures their cholesterol, BMI, waist circumference, etc. “Based on the results, we refer these workers to one of our health programmes if needed: Why exercise is good for you, Get fit and stay fit, etcetera”, Dr. Vanoeteren continues. “It increases their well-being and helps prevent health problems later on.”

“Mensura has greatly increased the effectiveness of our health policy”, Karel Bosmans adds. “We are able to monitor the health of our hospital workers and address certain issues based on facts and figures: changes in the number of smokers, the number of people participating in our health programmes, cholesterol and BMI results, and so on. This has really helped us build an evidence-based health policy.”