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Central Florida Health, the 636-bed not-for-profit healthcare system comprised of Leesburg Regional Medical Center and The Villages® Regional Hospital, announced today that it has been recognized with the highest level American Heart Association Workplace Health Gold Achievement Award. This is the second consecutive year the organization has received this prestigious recognition. "It is an honor to receive this award for the second year in a row," says Juli Romero-Gomez, RN Coordinator of the 'Healthy You, Healthy Us' Wellness Program at Central Florida Health. "It is a true testament to all of the hard work and health changes being made individually and system-wide."

The American Heart Association created the Workplace Health Achievement Index with its CEO Roundtable members, a leadership collaborative of more than 40 CEOs from some of America's largest companies who are committed to applying evidence-based approaches to improve their employees' overall health. The Index evaluates the overall quality and comprehensiveness of their workplace health programs. A unique feature of the Index is that is calculates an average heart health score for employees of participating companies that securely submit aggregate health data.

More than 1,000 companies completed the Index assessment this year and, of those companies, 75% received either Gold, Silver, or Bronze recognition. Companies receive benchmarking reports, which allow them to identify potential areas of improvement so that they can advance their annual performance and recognition in the Index and help their workforce move toward ideal heart health.

"We look forward to a continued successful relationship with the American Heart Association and to implementing changes that support a culture of great health and wellbeing for our team members and community," concludes Romero-Gomez.