Overview
Our client, a major engineering and construction company in Chad, needed a health partner to support the wellbeing of their employees. To identify the most prevalent health conditions affecting their workforce, we provided them with a customised healthcare solution for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) management. The clinical data obtained allowed our health experts to make appropriate healthcare recommendations to our client. A holistic approach, including the enhancement of their employees’ health coverage and educational sessions addressing healthy lifestyle habits, eased employees’ access to essential medications and ensured they stayed in good health.
Problem
Operating in a high-risk industry, our client’s top priority is to enhance their workforce’s wellbeing to minimise risks at work in line with local legislation and industry regulations. They are also focused on staff retention to maximise productivity on projects. With their workforce being predominantly older male employees between the ages of 40 and 50 engaged in physically demanding outdoor roles, they sought our support for health checks. They also wanted to identify key risk factors and health trends among their workforce population.
Solution
Our health experts created a customised plan comprising occupational health (OH) health checks and advisory services for the management of NCDs. 400 health checks were carried out for their employees in a year. They revealed two major health concerns:
- A high incidence of untreated hypertension, with 30% of employees facing elevated cardiovascular risk.
- Most employees have been identified as either diabetic or prediabetic, with 55% of the workforce having abnormal blood sugar levels.
When investigated by our medical team, many employees cited high medication costs and no reimbursement as barriers to regular treatment for these health conditions. We recommended that our client revisit their chronic disease management protocol to address this challenge. This included increased coverage of essential medical expenses for their staff. Our health experts also recommended awareness campaigns to educate employees about:
- healthy habits,
- the risks associated with hypertension and diabetes,
- preventive measures against NCDs, and
- the importance of regular treatment.
Impact
Based on our NCDs management programme recommendations, the client revisited the cost of chronic medication with their insurance company. Weekly health awareness sessions with employees by our OH doctor also ensured that our client’s workforce had access to key information on managing their health conditions better. This preventive risk management approach thus strengthened our client’s Duty of Care towards its workforce.