Workplace health promotion: the role and responsibility of health care managers

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 provided the catalyst from which the Health Promoting Workplace movement emerged. Here, an extensive review of the available workplace-related health literature provides the basis for critical discussion and recommendations for health care managers. The findings suggest that health care managers, who practice in all health service settings, should be aiming to initiate and promote radical health promotion reform as set out in the WHO settings-based movement. Developing and implementing sustainable health promotion-orientated and organization-wide healthy workplace policy initiatives represent the most effective way for health care managers to directly benefit from the desirable outcomes that come from creating and maintaining a healthy workforce.