Driving a bus, in general, sounds like a stressful job, but add kids to the mix, and it's easy to see why school-bus drivers may have high blood pressure, a condition that often leads to increased health insurance costs for school districts. That's exactly what happened to the Osceola County School District in Florida — officials noticed a drastic jump in health-care costs for high blood pressure among its drivers during the 2007-2008 school year.

Drivers must meet physical requirements, such as blood pressure control, in order to maintain their licenses. During the 2008 school year, the cost of treating high blood pressure jumped 65 percent from the year before, said Candice Roberson, employee wellness specialist for the school district. Like many county school districts in Florida, Osceola is self-insured, so it directly felt that 65-percent insurance hike and decided to do something about the problem.

The plan
Encouraging employees to keep their blood pressure and weight in check would not only ensure that they met licensing requirements but could also protect their health and lower the district's health insurance costs as well. Roberson said using kiosks to help seemed like a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Kiosks to the rescue
With support from a state grant, the district established an employee wellness program but also partnered with its insurance provider to deploy health-screening kiosks from Florida Medical Screening, a company that sells self-attended, automated health-monitoring stations and information systems.

"It is a great tool to assistance transportation staff with managing, tracking and controlling high blood pressure," said Roberson, who would recommend the kiosks to school districts nationwide. Osceola signed up for a 24-month lease-to-own program, which gave staff the "opportunity to kick the tires and try the health kiosks before making a large purchase," Roberson said. "We have been very pleased with the kiosks. They're low maintenance and very effective."

How they work
Each kiosk is equipped with a seat that measures weight, a cuff for measuring blood pressure, and a screen with bilingual instructions and information on interpreting results. Twenty-four–hour access to the kiosks fits drivers' irregular schedules, Roberson said.

By registering their badge numbers, drivers can monitor changes in their measurements, set goals and track progress online. They can print out records to share with their doctors or show when their CDL is up for renewal. To ensure employees' privacy, only aggregate data are available for administrators to see.

Information about overall trends helps wellness staff tailor classes and information to employee needs.

For example, hundreds of Osceola County employees attended on-site classes in cooking, fitness and chronic disease management in 2009.

Online resources are another important part of the program's educational outreach, Roberson said. Drivers are encouraged to take advantage of the U.S. Department of Transportation's DownShift health education website, featuring information tailored to the needs of professional drivers and their families. Osceola County can also compare notes and share ideas with a network of 23 other Florida school districts that promote wellness through dedicated employee programs.

Color-coded charts allow employees to track their measurements over time and share them with health care professionals and licensing authorities.

The stats
Nearly 60 percent of the district's bus drivers, attendants, and mechanics regularly monitor their health at kiosks.

At just one of the kiosks, employees checked their blood pressure more than 2,500 times between August 2009 and February 2010.

And more than 600 Transportation Department employees attended blood pressure education classes in 2009.

"Because of this, I am on top of my health, checking my blood pressure daily, and keeping my body and weight where it should be," said Ivenia Laurent, a Transportation Department employee. "I have lost 4 inches to my waist and 6 pounds."