Blue Cross of California starts staff training on childhood obesity
San Francisco Business Times - 9:59 AM PDT Wednesday
Blue Cross of California has kicked off a statewide body mass index training and promotion program for clinical staff as part of its $9 million, three-year statewide initiative to address childhood obesity.
The workshops for registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses and medical assistants will highlight to role of clinical staff in the fight against childhood obesity and promote obesity screening as a routing practice across the state.
The California Health & Human Services Agency said approximately one in three children in California are overweight or at risk of being overweight, and almost 40 percent of school-aged children are unfit. Obesity causes serious health problems like type 2 diabetes and hypertension, and is a leading cause of preventable death.
In addition to the body mass index program, Blue Cross of California developed and distributed a childhood obesity physician toolkit to the 12,000 pediatric and family practice doctors in its network, and has an online childhood obesity continuing education course. The company also provides resources for families and communities including the Kids in Charge of Kalories disease management program, a free online "Get up and get moving" workbook, and educational childhood obesity videos distributed to 26,000 PTA chapters nationwide in a partnership with Parents' Action for Children. It also provides support for other programs and organizations working to combat obesity.
Woodland Hills-based Blue Cross of California, one of the state's largest health plans with more than 7.6 million members, is also a member of the Governor's council on physical fitness and sports and is on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Summit on Health, Nutrition and Obesity Honor Roll."
Article