Merck's Integrated Health Management group offers a range of work-site health programs and resources, and employs 112 highly qualified physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, medical assistants and other professionals to staff 23 Company facilities worldwide. Services include preventive occupational health programs, work-related injury and illness management, treatment for acute episodic conditions occurring during work hours, disability management, reproductive health and pregnancy, business travel program immunization, lab and X-ray services.

Among the health services and programs available to Merck employees are:

• Health Matters: Merck offers Health Matters to U.S.-based employees, which includes a health website, a confidential health assessment, online interactive health tools, health coaching programs and more. The web site, accessible by all English-speaking employees, is designed to raise awareness of health issues and motivate employees to manage and improve their health and well-being. It includes topical summaries based on scientific evidence, and links to The Merck Manuals, Merck Source, and other reliable sources. After completing the online health assessment, an employee immediately receives a customized report that summarizes their health status and suggested areas for personal goal-setting, and supplies links to reliable information specific to interests or needs. Anyone who takes the assessment and wants to work on an identified health risk has confidential access to a lifestyle coach who provides advice and encouragement, and monitors progress on an ongoing basis. About 15 percent of U.S. employees have completed the health assessment. A majority (more than 75 percent) of those contacted by a coach have opted to work on a health goal utilizing the lifestyle coaching program. 
  
  Participation in the health assessment and other Health Matters offerings is voluntary and confidential.  Health Matters has been reviewed and approved by Merck’s Corporate Privacy Officer and is in compliance with Merck’s privacy policies and applicable privacy laws in the United States.  Third party vendors collect the results and Merck receives aggregate reports that contain non-identifiable information that is used for evaluating program effectiveness and planning future programs and health tools for Merck employees.
  
  To  increase employee engagement and improve outcomes, Merck coordinates the efforts of the vendor companies and internal Merck staff who provide the various Health Matters programs and resources. Through regular group discussions and communications, vendors and internal staff become aware of the overall program objectives, collaborate on shared goals and metrics and cross-promote the offerings.
  
• Health Matters on-site café collaboration: What we eat and drink affects our daily physical and mental well-being and our longer-term health and resilience.  To contribute to a healthy work culture, Merck partners with our on-site food vendor at most U.S. Merck facilities to increase the availability and visibility of healthy food choices and raise awareness of the importance of appropriate food portion sizes. Employees receive discounts for healthy food purchases for meals, snacks and catered business meetings.
• Fit Beginnings: Physical activity is one of the best ways to improve our overall health and outlook on life. In 2008, we again offered Fit Beginnings, an eight week, fall physical activity campaign that incorporates incentives for participants. Eight percent of employees based in the U.S. and Puerto Rico chose to participate and jump-start a new fitness regime, and almost half of them met the goals they had set.
• Health Matters Fitness Centers: Merck offers access to on-site fitness centers at five of our largest U.S. locations. Professional fitness managers organize programs and events to encourage employees to eat well, manage their weight, exercise and participate in various fitness challenges and other special events.
• Occupational health: As a global organization, the Company has several different operating divisions and work assignments — each with its own specific range of physical and mental requirements. Particular work assignments may involve potential exposure to one or more environmental hazards, such as noise, mixtures of chemicals, and work with biological compounds. The Company maintains a continuing and concerted effort to assess and control workplace hazards (chemical, biological and physical) and to ensure that each employee's work assignment is safe and consistent with his or her evaluated capabilities. Occupational health programs are developed and implemented based on identified health risks. In the event that an employee does become injured or ill while performing his or her job, we have programs in place for treatment and rehabilitation.
• Work-related injury and illness management: Merck’s Integrated Health Management professionals are clinically trained and dedicated to providing efficient and effective quality health care for employees who become injured or ill as a result of their work. They advise on and coordinate health care with providers or agencies to ensure a smooth treatment and recovery process, while complying with both Company and regulatory record-keeping requirements.
• Acute episodic health care: Most Integrated Health Management clinics provide non-work-related acute episodic health care, including the diagnosis and treatment of minor illnesses or injuries, health maintenance counseling and appropriate referral to specialty services.
• Disease  management nurse coaching: In March 2009, Merck launched a voluntary disease management program, which offers confidential professional support for ongoing treatment and care for most U.S. employees and their dependents with specific significant medical conditions. The goal is to help an individual achieve optimal health by providing evidence-based medical information and self-care guidance.
• Disability management: Our Integrated Health Management group includes  clinical staff that assists in the development of disability management and return-to-work policies. By working with the employee and his/her personal physician, our staff counsels the employee and coordinates care and access to appropriate medical treatment. The health professional's understanding and knowledge of the Company's business operations helps to enable the return of the employee to a safe and productive work environment.
• Reproductive health and pregnancy: We evaluate potential reproductive risk exposures and counsel pregnant employees and employees contemplating pregnancy on potential risks. This includes coordination with the supervisor, toxicology, safety and industrial hygiene staff, the employee and his/her physician.
• Business travel program: Merck is concerned about the health and safety of our employees who travel on business, especially to international locations. Integrated Health Management maintains up-to-date information regarding infectious diseases prevalent in all countries and required immunizations. Business travelers are given information on health conditions in the country of their destination along with a traveler's guide, a travel kit containing over-the-counter medications they may need while traveling, any required immunizations, and an international emergency travel assistance card. Employees may also consult with the Health Services physician for any prescription medications that may be needed during travel, for counseling on preventive medical care prior to departure, to ascertain availability of medical care in country of destination, and to advise on medical care after return as needed.
• Voluntary immunization program: More adults die each year than children from vaccine-preventable diseases. In 1993, Merck announced a cooperative effort to provide Merck's vaccines for all employees globally through the Merck Voluntary Vaccination Program. Integrated Health Management professionals provide employees with information concerning vaccines and the diseases indicated, along with advice about the benefits as well as the risks of the vaccination. A medical evaluation is completed by an Integrated Health Management clinician to determine whether vaccination is medically appropriate. Merck vaccines are administered at no expense to employees.
• Pandemic Planning: Merck has developed a Business Continuity Plan for pandemic flu, with the focus primarily on regions at highest risk. While we believe that the risk of H5N1 influenza is minimal — both in terms of the threat of infection to employees and the risk of business disruption — many Merck subsidiaries worldwide have developed site-specific pandemic preparedness plans, employing a variety of countermeasures that focus on heightened awareness and practical, cost-efficient procedural approaches. In the United States, Merck offers flu shots at no cost to up to 5,000 employees on a first-come, first-serve basis annually.
  
  With  the outbreak of the Influenza A (H1N1 "swine flu") virus in early 2009, Merck mobilized a cross-functional team to develop and deliver to Merck managers and Environmental Health and Safety professionals key documents and supports for global employee health and safety guidance and specific response recommendations.
• HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria workplace policy: Merck recognizes that infectious diseases represent major health care burdens worldwide and pose an unprecedented challenge to nations and their people around the globe, including Merck employees, their families and the communities in which we operate. Three diseases alone — HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria — are worldwide pandemics responsible today for approximately half of infectious disease mortality. These diseases impose a significant and destabilizing social, economic and health burden to nations, communities and families, with uneven access to treatment. The Company believes that all of our employees who need it should have access to prevention, care and treatment for HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria. Since 2005, we have had in place a corporate policy to provide benefits to our employees where local access to HIV, TB and malaria prevention, care and treatment is inadequate.

The principles of the policy are to:

• Ensure that all employees and their dependents have access to prevention, care and treatment for HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria
• Ensure that HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria care and treatment programs for all Merck employees and their dependents meet a minimum standard of care, and that prevention programs are locally appropriate
• Promote confidentiality, equal opportunity, non-discrimination and reasonable accommodation of employees, including those with HIV and AIDS, TB or malaria
• Supplement and support local governmental health care responsibilities
• Provide Company-sponsored benefits where local access to appropriate prevention, care and treatment is inadequate

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA, and Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, USA, are now one company. We have combined our global operations under the name Merck & Co., Inc. We are working to update our corporate responsibility Web site to reflect our new, combined, global organization.