Challenge: Assist a rural Indiana manufacturing facility in educating 350 Union workers to be more proactive in their health care utilization and personal health care needs.

Solution: A Purdue team of faculty and graduate assistants performed a thorough on-site assessment of the employers’ claims data, company culture, ergonomic and safety issues and individual employee health conditions. Recommendations from the analysis of this data included medical insurance plan design modifications, environmental and company culture modifications, and a series of educational training courses targeted at the employees to increase education and compliance with previous recommendations.

Result: After successful training of over 300 of the employees, the company noted increased generic drug utilization, increased mail order pharmacy usage, and decreased emergency room utilization. The company also implemented several ergonomic modifications and was collaborating with outside vendors to meet additional ergonomic needs.

Challenge: Rural Indiana manufacturer, with only 100 employees, hopes to educate primarily non-English speaking Hispanic workforce on how to navigate the healthcare system and preventive health in an effort to contain rising healthcare costs.

Solution: A Purdue team of faculty and graduate assistants performed a thorough on-site assessment of the employers’ claims data, company culture, ergonomic and safety issues and individual employee health conditions. Recommendations included minor ergonomic modifications and extensive training for the employees. All training modules and related materials were translated to Spanish. During the on-site training, a native Spanish speaking presenter was used to not only ensure comprehension but also to make the participants more comfortable when asking important questions.

Result: The Company integrated ergonomic changes into the Lean process they were also undergoing at the same time to reduce the future risk of injury. The company also reports greater use of generic drugs. Due to the benefit plan design, the company expects to see changes in benefit usage in the coming years.