Early love of sports, exercise persists today
Posted By: Joan Magruder 
Date Posted: June 28th, 2010 Category: Health Care
BJC • Editor’s note: This edition’s “A note from Steve” was provided by guest columnist Joan Magruder, president of Missouri Baptist Medical Center. Magruder joined BJC in 2000 as vice president of business development, physician services and alternate care sites, and assumed her role at MBMC in 2006.
Growing up as the youngest of eight children, I spent my entire childhood chasing my seven older brothers around and wanting to be just like them. I attended hundreds of their sporting events and couldn’t wait until I was old enough to play too.
Along the way, I developed a deep passion for basketball. I played basketball in grade school, high school and college. Once I finished college, I found I missed the daily exercise just as much as I missed playing the sport itself. I soon realized I needed to find other forms of exercise to continue keeping me healthy.
Fast forward a few years — just a few — where, as the president of Missouri Baptist Medical Center, I continue to believe in the importance of exercise, and also the entire spectrum of health and wellness. Health and wellness is about the way you take care of yourself — eating well, moving your body and arranging proactive doctor visits and tests. It’s about doing things now, such as getting that mammogram, colonoscopy, dental work or annual visit, to keep yourself healthy down the road.
As health care professionals, our role isn’t just to provide patient care to those who are ill. It’s also our role to teach people — patients and employees — how to be healthy. To give them access to the tools they need, and to provide them with education and support to live a healthy lifestyle.
Through the BJC Help for Your Health team, employees across BJC have an incredible amount of support available to them. Between discounts at local gyms across St. Louis, on-site Weight Watchers programs, healthy eating choices in the cafeterias and annual health assessments, everything you need to live a healthy lifestyle is readily available to you.
In 2010, health and wellness became an official priority here at MoBap. Our executive team felt it was a perfect fit with our hospital vision “to improve the health of the people and communities we serve.” After all, promoting health and wellness sets a positive example not only for our employees, but extends to employees’ families, our patients and the community for generations to come.
A MoBap health and wellness team came together this spring and has begun championing this priority. A few of the team’s initiatives are highlighted in this issue of BJC TODAY. (See page 7.) As you read about the MoBap employees who are embracing health and wellness, and getting involved, you’ll see why I feel so honored to lead the MoBap organization.
Although I no longer burn energy by chasing down my brothers or playing competitive basketball, I’ll always be grateful that I was instilled so early in life with a love of sports and exercise that lasts to this day.