Mount Sinai Announces Affiliation With NIOSH Total Worker Health Program™
Leaders from the Mount Sinai Health System and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) today announced Mount Sinai’s participation in the Total Worker Health™ (TWH) Affiliate Program. The program integrates occupational safety and health protection with health promotion strategies to prevent worker injury and illness and to advance overall employee health and well-being. The announcement was made during a Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony held at The Mount Sinai Hospital today.
Additionally, the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health became the first in the nation to be designated a Total Worker HealthT™ Clinical Center of Excellence by NIOSH.
“The NIOSH Total Worker Health Affiliate Program helps to further advance the integration of health protection and health promotion by engaging partners who are similarly committed to innovative strategies for advancing worker health and safety,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, MD. “This collaborative effort with the Mount Sinai Health System provides the opportunity to increase practice, develop comprehensive programs, and evaluate the effectiveness of these programs.”
“The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has long recognized the importance of investigating the effects of both work and non-work factors on worker health,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System. “Continued research and translating that research to practice will ultimately improve health outcomes and the quality of life for workers and their families, and we’re pleased to partner with NIOSH on this initiative to help achieve those results.”
An emerging body of evidence recognizes that health factors beyond the workplace, such as nutrition, smoking, and exercise, contribute to many safety and health problems facing today’s workforce as a result of exposures to risk factors arising in the work environment itself. The Total Worker Health™ Affiliate Program recognizes Mount Sinai’s commitment to advancing worker health through innovative strategies, research, and education.
“Within this collaborative framework, the Mount Sinai Health System will continue to explore innovative strategies that integrate health protection and health promotion activities for our 36,000 employees,” said Jane Maksoud, RN, MPA, Chief Human Resources Officer and Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Labor Relations at the Mount Sinai Health System. “We will continue to implement best practices and policies focusing on nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and tobacco cessation.”
As Total Worker Health™ Clinical Centers of Excellence, the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health, the health care delivery cores for the Department of Preventive Medicine within the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will offer health promotion services to patients. The centers will also collaborate with employers to develop comprehensive workplace health and safety programs. The Selikoff Centers are leaders in the field of occupational medicine and provide care to injured and ill workers and retirees in the New York City and Lower Hudson Valley regions. Programs in diabetes prevention, stress management, and tobacco cessation are part of the initial offering.
“As we diagnose and treat individuals suffering from work-related injuries or illnesses at the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health, we have an important opportunity to offer our patients tools that can positively impact their overall health, said Madelynn Azar-Cavanagh, MD, MPH, FACOEM, Medical Director of the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health and Medical Director of Employee Health, Safety and Wellness for the Mount Sinai Health System. “We are delighted that employers, unions, and other organizations are collaborating with our medical team to develop preventive strategies to support the health of their workforce.”
Mount Sinai’s Department of Preventive Medicine will also spearhead research that evaluates the effectiveness of TWH interventions. The department will train future health care professionals on integrated TWH strategies in general preventive medicine and occupational and environmental medicine through its residency training programs.
“Mount Sinai continues to be a leader in the field of occupational medicine, and we are committed to developing innovative programs that reduce or prevent worker injury and illness,” said Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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