News 04.03.18
3 April 2018 News
For the seventh consecutive year, Fond du Lac County is named one of the “Healthiest Companies in America” by Interactive Health. This year, Fond du Lac County is one of 184 companies across the country recognized for empowering employees to make significant and sometimes life-saving changes to improve their health. Participants in the wellness program receive a thorough health evaluation to identify risk and learn about their health status and a personalized course of action. In 2017, 69% of employees and spouses achieved a low-risk health score.
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A Beaver Dam woman turns the tragic death of her teenage daughter into a life mission to raise awareness and educate about organ donation. Dawn Lyons-Wood received the 2018 Crystal Vision Award from the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin in March. The award honors three individuals annually for their commitment and dedication to raising awareness for eye, organ and tissue donation. Her daughter, Emily Lyons, was 19 when she died in 2015 following a snowmobile accident. Lyons had signed up to be an organ, tissue and eye donor when she got her driver’s license. Lyons-Wood’s said her daughter was able to save six people’s lives, with the transplants of her heart, both kidneys, pancreas, small intestine and liver. Her eyes helped someone in Wisconsin, while more than 60 people in 22 states benefited from her tissue donation. Lyons-Wood became a certified volunteer for the UW Organ and Tissue Donation service. She regularly speaks at a driving school in Beaver Dam about organ donation. Lyons was an aspiring optometrist who’d been slated to join the Lions Club at UW-La Crosse, which supports many sight related charities. Instead, her mother was inducted into the Beaver Dam Lions Club in August.
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A North Texas company has recalled nearly 4 tons of raw beef wrongly produced and packaged without federal inspection. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the recall involves PFP Enterprises, operating as Texas Meat Packers of Fort Worth. The recall involves 7,146 pounds of various-weight beef for tacos and fajitas produced March 23 and March 24. The lack of inspection was discovered Friday. The USDA had no confirmed reports of anyone getting sick. The products should be thrown away or returned to the point of purchase. The recalled items have “EST. 34715” inside the USDA mark and were shipped to nine states, including Wisconsin. The case codes are 1470, 36989, 567248261 or 567248253. Consumers can contact Patterson Foods at 817-546-3561.
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Companies across Wisconsin are turning to wellness programs as a way to save money and improve the health and productivity of their employees. A Cornell University found that 12 percent of all health care dollars in Wisconsin are spent on obesity-related conditions, above the national average of 8 percent. Justin Sydnor, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business and researches wellness programs, says companies hope to curb health care costs by encouraging their employees to be healthier. But studies have mixed conclusions about how effective the programs are. Some studies found that offering money doesn’t motivate people to be healthier. Sydnor and other UW researchers conducted a study last year that gave new gym members up to $60 if they went to the gym at least nine times in a six-week period, and the additional money had no affect. Jonathon Morgan, physical activity coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services says other studies have shown that the programs can reduce company health costs. He says companies will usually get back more than they invest in wellness programs.
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