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Whether owner or employee, we all have a stake in promoting healthy workplaces.
When team members feel their best, businesses benefit from greater productivity and lower absenteeism rates. Workers experience a stronger sense of well-being, engagement and job satisfaction. Simply put, when people are healthier, they are often happier, and it shows at work.
The integral connection between health and work performance may be why employees are encouraged or even incentivized to adopt proactive measures to reduce their risk of illnesses and diseases. Companies’ yearly push for flu shots is a prime example. Yet, many businesses across Arkansas still miss valuable, cost-effective opportunities to enhance their employees’ long-term health through early detection.
Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) data shows that our state is underutilizing lifesaving tools such as pap tests and mammograms, often due to a lack of awareness or access, particularly in more rural areas. The good news is our screening rates have steadily been rising. Soon, we may see even greater participation with the rollout of novel medical tools, such as the new human papillomavirus (HPV) self-collection for cervical cancer screening.
Traditionally, health care providers have performed cervical cancer screening, also known as primary HPV testing, during women’s well-woman visits. These tests allow doctors to find and treat precancerous changes in the cervix before the disease can progress. Arkansas is currently ranked fifth-lowest in the nation for pap tests. As a result, the disease is often caught later when women face “poorer outcomes and higher treatment costs.”
To help reduce barriers women often face, including here in Arkansas, the U.S. Federal Drug and Food Administration (FDA) recently approved a self-collection method for cervical cancer screening in health care settings, including primary care providers and mobile health clinics. This new convenient option, which the American Cancer Society calls “comparable to clinician-collected samples” in efficacy, will significantly expand women’s access to screenings and allow “more people the opportunity to detect, treat and ultimately survive cancer.”
Why should workplaces recognize and take advantage of these early detection advancements? Again, we need look no further than cervical cancer.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the annual cost of cervical cancer care is $2.3 billion. The American Journal of Management Care (AJMC) states that treatment costs for Stage III or IV patients are 2-4 times more than those diagnosed earlier. The study also found that those living with cancer face out-of-pocket medical expenditures more than 60% higher than those without.
Early detection allows for shorter, more effective and less expensive treatment courses. Patients experience better long-term outcomes, facilitating a smoother return to life and work.
The economic upsides of early detection are clear. With continued strides, such as the FDA’s approval of the HPV self-collection method, it will become even easier, accessible and cost-effective for Arkansas employees and workplaces to capitalize on these tools’ life- and cost-saving benefits.
Kathryn Kennedy, M.D., FACOG, is a board-certified gynecologic surgical oncologist at CARTI, a not-for-profit, multidisciplinary cancer care provider with 18 locations and Arkansas’ first dedicated cancer surgery center.
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