Why Should You Get into the Business of Health and Wellness?

Healthplex Associates is hosting a free webinar, Wednesday January 19th at 12:00 P.M EST to discuss “Why you Should Get into the Business of Health and Wellness”.  Lynn Robbins and Don Doyle have over 20 years of experience in the health and wellness industry. Join the discussion on how medical fitness can have an enormous impact on your business. Register Here

The science of Public Health has always been a concern for hospitals, although it has had varying degrees of importance to our health care system over the last 100 years. If Covid has had any lasting impacts on the system, it is certainly that we cannot simply focus on inpatient care to achieve our aims. Keeping people well, however, has long been an elusive task.

In a recently released report, Feeling Good: The future of the $1.5 Trillion Wellness Market, issued by McKinsey & Company shared the results of a major survey conducted by the firm that health care providers need to take note of:

“Our latest research shows that consumers care deeply about wellness—and that their interest is growing. In a survey of roughly 7,500 consumers in six countries, 79 percent of the respondents said they believe that wellness is important, and 42 percent consider it a top priority. In fact, consumers in every market we researched reported a substantial increase in the prioritization of wellness2 over the past two to three years.”

The report was able to identify six major areas that consumers were interested in:

· Better Health

· Better Fitness

· Better Nutrition

· Better Appearance

· Better Sleep

· Better Mindfulness

For any health system that had been successfully engaged in a wellness center prior to the pandemic, these are all areas that were (or should have been) ones that they were offering leading services to their community. Despite that, with public health concerns limiting our ability to engage in congregate activities, fitness centers, like restaurants and other social gathering places have taken a major financial hit since early 2020. While remote services, fitness trackers and virtual visits can offer some people a path to achieving wellness, realistically we have found that this is a minority and like the McKinsey study, we see wellness levels slipping. People are social by nature and the support of a qualified trainer and/or the companionship of their friends in a fitness center will typically lead to greater adherence to lifestyle changes.

Therein lies the dilemma; if we know we need to promote and offer wellness to our communities, but the current climate makes it difficult or impossible to operate successfully, why should you start think about starting a new wellness center? The answer is one that every industry must, at some point in its evolution, find for the future. Just as the railroad industry limped along a failed path as it saw itself as providing only train service until they redefined themselves as an integrated transportation system, health care must take the broader view.

This pandemic will end. Maybe it will be a year, maybe two, but it must. There may be a new reality that accompanies that end with more constant vigilance and vaccinations, but some new normal will be there. Building a wellness product line, a new center would require a year, two years or even three if a system were to start now. Opening tomorrow may not be a good option but starting now is the only option. Those who wait for things to ‘calm down’ to start will be years behind the curve and may find themselves merely running trains.