Imagine yourself at work, you are beside yourself
coughing, sneezing and blowing your nose relentlessly into hysterics. You feel
a chill, some goose bumps, and a slight dizziness. Your phone rings, it’s your primary care
physician saying “Dennis, please come see me as soon as possible.” You gather yourself, dreading the move out of your
seat and you make your way down the hall into an adjoining office. You are greeted by your primary care physician. Does that sound too good to be true? Onsite
healthcare facilities are starting to populate within the core work environment
and surprisingly they are becoming an employer’s best friend.
With the new Affordable Care Act, companies with fifty
or more employees must provide adequate healthcare for all full-time workers. This leads to the question, “will companies
pay more money to supply healthcare to all?”
What if your company could combine saving money and delivering
healthcare access without your employees leaving work? Think of the benefits this would
provide.
First, employees with access to a provider at their
office would develop a personal relationship with that provider, and would be
able to identify concerns, create healthy strategies and encourage a change in
patient behavior. Providers will be fully aware of each case
and highly sensitive to each patient’s needs.
Detecting symptoms early is paramount to minimizing (or possibly
eliminating) any illness. With daily
visits and ongoing diagnosis, you could attack symptoms at the most treatable stages.
Secondly, with access
to onsite providers your employees will live a healthier lifestyle. With preventative measures and wellness
programs, your employees will have
less sick days away from their job and more time being productive at work, therefore
reducing healthcare costs.
How does it work managing onsite healthcare? Take for example Walgreens and its Take Care
Health Systems subsidiary, which manages approximately 400 worksite health
centers using the Complete Care and Well-Being Health Service Network. They deliver personal primary care coverage based
on the needs of their client using special short term providers, better known
as “locum tenens” providers.
These locum tenens providers are unique. They are physicians and/or mid-levels who are
board certified in different specialties and who have different healthcare experiences. Locum tenens providers can work for a day, a
week, a month or as long as you like. They deliver onsite health and wellness
screenings, primary care, occupational medicine, medical exams, flu shots, x-rays,
pain medication and physical therapy to address acute and chronic health
conditions. The benefit for the Walgreens
Network is that they can add or subtract locum tenens providers based on what
service is needed and how many providers are warranted. From the Walgreens perspective,
“Together, we work to customize your health and wellness initiatives so
they complement the specific needs of your company.”
In summary, companies should embrace the onsite
healthcare model as a possible solution to reducing healthcare costs. It will reduce the
employee’s time away from their desk and create healthier employees while
reducing healthcare costs due to fewer claims. On the flip side, employees will
enjoy a better lifestyle benefiting from less time spent in waiting rooms, more
opportunities to be productive at work while still having immediate access to their
doctor next door.
Is it time to prescribe an Onsite Healthcare
Facility for your company?
_______________________________________________________________________
Written by:
Dennis Webb, Director of Business Development at Medestar
Phone: 214-932-1414
Email: dennis.webb@medestar.com
Website: www.medestar.com
Follow us on Twitter: @medestarlocums
Follow us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/medestar
Check us out on Facebook: http://facebook.com/fidelismedestar
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