Texas hospital bans obese workers?

Would any of you feel more confident in a health care provider that has fit employees? Just wondering if anyone has rolled their eyes at taking heath advice from someone that is obese?

Personally, I trust people more that actually walk the walk. But that is me.

I am obese and do NOT want an obese doctor. I don't care what anybody thinks about it either. Everyone can play nice in the forum, but I'm gonna keep it real. Just like I don't want people with no success giving me advice on MFP, I don't want a fat assed doctor telling me what actions to take to lose weight.

This made me laugh out loud. Thank you. Gotta love people that keep it real. :flowerforyou:

I don't want to be told to quit smoking by a smoker and I don't want to be told to lose weight by someone fatter than me. A BMI of 35 is still obese, just not morbidly obese. I agree with this rule.

Only applicants with a BMI of <35 are even considered for a job...And this is something that might catch on like only hiring nonsmokers...

Is anyone else outraged about this? They say that worker with a BMI >35 cannot do their job effectively! What a crock of crap. I do my job a hell of a lot better than people with BMIs of <20!

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/04/09/texas-hospital-fat-people-bmi-need-not-apply

http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women/

Just as you oppose this based on generalizations, I am offended that you think you do superior work to me with my low BMI.

Were you "trying" to say that people should be hired based on their qualifications and ability to perform and not based on weight? This scenario would seem to make more sense, but reality is that many occupations have regulations. I was never able to model due to my short stature (what do you mean I wasn't pretty enough! Outrage! I will sue!!) Or join the military...it wasn't because of their weight restrictions, but fact is I'm just not a kick-*kitten* sort of girl... (Nope, didn't sue there, either)

I WILL tell you one line of sales at my local mall that always makes me smile - where they might THINK of having a certain "type" of employee... The kiosk that sells weight-loss products, and there is an extremely overweight person manning the desk. Nope, not buying their products... :laugh:

getting ready for hate responses here but I simply must comment. I totally disagree with the posts I have read. First if you are going to compare this to smoking..i work with smokers where smoking is not permitted...That doesn't stop them...they smoke everywhere with no regard. If I ask them to please step away from me...never mind they are not permitted to smoke, they tell me the smoke is not going my way and don't move. You can't make choices for people and so if a company is not non-profit then they have the right to avoid the drama and discord of attempting to juggle smokers and non-smokers...and by the way the legislation that has brought you companies being able to fire you for the color of your hair if they like let alone any other reason was put in place by Republicans lol...unless you are in a union at least here in PA they can fire you if they don't like the way you smile.
Next we all need to wake up. Being overweight is not a condition that we can't control. It is a condition that is brought on ourselves by bad choices. When are we going to learn not to play victim and take responsibility for our own actions. If you want to eat more than you need then the consequence is being fat. The consequences for being fat is far reaching...social stigma, etc., etc., I am so glad I woke up and stopped feeling sorry for myself...I was fat because i ate more than I needed...it doesn't matter how difficult my life was...when I was fat I was not as good of an employee as I am now...if you think being overweight doesn't affect everything in your life including stamina, outlook, interpersonal relationships which in turn affect how well you function on a team and how well you do your job...you are incorrect. It is annoying and unproductive when you have to do the work of a co-worker because they are winded or have to take a break.
Look around you at people who would die running to catch a bus....is this what the land of the free set out to be? Overindulged spoiled children who think people aren't being nice and aren't accepting them because they are fat? I love people...but just as if you are a heroin addict...that isn't who you really are and so I can accept you but not your habit...if you are fat then I can accept you and embrace you but not the lie that your fat is who you are....fat is a symptom of a very bad habit... you are the person inside ...want to overeat...expect people to treat you differently from those who don't...you have the right to eat and they have the right to have opinions.

All I can say, having read all these comments, is that I personally would be more concerned with getting good treatment in a hospital than I would finding a "healthy" role model. I don't think BMI or the lifestyle of the nurse says an awful lot about their expertise, qualifications, and other measures of knowledge.

^^^THIS

You know, if that's what they want, they should serve healthy food in their hospital cafeteria, give nurses longer than 30 minutes for lunch, put in a small workout room with exercise machines, and have a lower patient-to-nurse ratio to cut back on stress for their workers. This is particularly important for people who work grave or swing, and even more important if they rotate shifts.

If they don't want obese workers, then they really need to take responsibility for some of the problems they are actively promoting. You can't expect healthy workers if you don't provide a healthy atmosphere.

This! Quite honestly, I've never worked for a hospital that offered a gym, adequate break time, or even a fair sick-leave policy. It's only been in the past year that they've started having healthy food options every day for staff and visitors. It's just kind of crazy to think that they expect their nurses to be role models of good health, and then make it difficult for them to do so.

That being said, I do work with a few nurses who are morbidly obese...and they certainly don't hustle in getting their work done, and try to find ANY excuse to get out of doing a task that requires them to get up and move around. LOL

BMI is not a good indicator of health, however, and should not be used as a defining factor in determining whether an employee is "worthy" of working for an organization.

Overweight and obese employees are statistically more expensive to provide healthcare for. By hiring people with lower BMI, they can reduce insurance costs and make their services more affordable for consumers Why should I pay more for anything because an employer is forced to hire heavier, more expensive employees.

Being obese is a choice. It may not be an easy thing to change but everyone can make the choice and do the work to lower their BMI.

It kind of makes me think of working within a bank, if you have horrible credit and have not made any effort to pay/maintain your debts, they screen you, and you will not be offered a job. Why? Because they dont want someone who owes money, cannot represent the banks expectations of their clients and esp. give advice if they havent been able to breathe it in and put it into practice in their own lives.

If you work in the financial sector you are typically subjected to a background check which includes an analysis of your credit report. People are denied employment in the banking sector all the time for having bad credit - even entry level teller positions.

That's pretty sad. If you looked around the hospital where I work, probably 35% of the employees would have a BMI greater than 35.

I will say that I was an excellent nurse with a BMI of 40, and although my quality of life is better with a BMI of 25, I don't think that my nursing practice would be improved, as I was always one of the best nurses on any floor that I worked.

One of the issues that hospitals face is that most are self-insured, meaning they create and fund their own employee insurance plan, which means that they absorb the costs that chronically ill and very unhealthy employees incur. Unfortunately, the few extremely unhealthy employees are the ones that cost the most money to the insurance plan. It probably makes business sense to weed out the employees who have expensive chronic illness like uncontrolled diabetes and heart disease. Eliminating morbidly obese employees would probably benefit their health plans to a certain extent.

Unfortunately, you cannot measure intelligence, compassion and experience with BMI, so once again, hospitals are forgetting that providing the absolute best quality patient care should come before the accounting numbers. Sad state of affairs and the reason that health care in the US is failing at such a great rate compared to the health care in the rest of the world. As long as accountants and MBAs run hospitals, patient care will suffer.

I too work in a hospital and agree.....Pretty sad

Have to say that I'm in the camp with those who have no problem with this - and that is coming from someone who lives in Texas and whose BMI would not, currently, make the grade.

When my wife's mother was dying of emphysema, it perplexed her to no end that the nurses who were monitoring her mom's lung machine were the same ones ducking out for a quick smoke during their break time.

Same thing applies to me as a (currently) morbidly obese middle aged man. It never held much weight to me (no pun intended) to be getting nutritional and weight loss advice from a practitioner who was in the same boat as myself or even worse shape.

No apologies, but the advice just rings more true to me if it is coming from a source that is practicing what they preach.

Let's face it, how many of us here would be comfortable at the dentist's office if the smile coming back to us from the other side of the chair looked something like this?:



or this?:




Seriously, they could be the best dentist on the planet but I would imagine that there is not a single one of us here that would trust a word of what they said if the smiles above came from our dentist.

The issue is not different if applied to your nurse or doctor.