2 hospitals drop out of Wellness Challenge

The Corporate Wellness Challenge, established by Action Long Island to get and keep employees of companies here eating right and exercising, has been expanding since it got started two years ago.

But recently two of the region's largest health organizations -- North Shore Health Systems in Manhasset and Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola -- have dropped out of the program, saying they think they can do a better job educating their employees internally.

The Corporate Wellness Challenge has signed up between 23 and 28 Long Island companies in each of the past two years. Sheldon Sackstein, ALI's chairman and organizer of the Challenge, said those companies represent roughly 16,000 employees. ALI is one of the region's largest business organizations.

The idea behind the Challenge was to inspire the companies to start health and wellness programs in their offices. Employees would stick to an exercise and diet program for a period of about six months. A winner would be determined based on a point system measuring weight loss among employees and other criteria.

But Joseph Molloy, North Shore Health Systems human resources vice president, said in a statement earlier this week that North Shore -- which includes 15 hospitals, most of them on Long Island -- "is no longer participating in any of their programs. We have built and continue to develop a number of integrated health and wellness programs internally for all of our employees more directly tied to our mission and culture." Molloy also resigned from the ALI board. In an interview, he said his work at the hospital had expanded.

Wendy Goldstein, a spokeswoman for Winthrop, said the hospital has "a very strong wellness program. "What we found is we were able to better deliver programs to Winthrop employees working independently." Goldstein said only a small number of the hospital's 6,000 employees had actually signed on to the ALI's wellness program.

Bob Nystrom, the former Islander hockey star who is now executive vice president of Melville-based Kinloch Consulting Group, also resigned as co-chair of the ALI health care task force, citing time constraints. But Nystrom said he remains a supporter of the Challenge. "I was very keen on what we had accomplished," Nystrom said.

Asked for a comment, Sackstein said, "I don't think it's a story." He said further that it was "unfortunate" that the two hospitals chose to withdraw. "We'll revisit it with them at a later date and the program is going to go on. I think it's still a good program."