Iowa businesses bring back the ‘company doctor’

The doctor will see you now.

At work.

In an era of ever-increasing health care costs, some Iowa companies — including Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co. and Rockwell Collins — are bringing back a version of the company doctor to help deal with everything from sinus infections to Pap smears.

They aren't alone — companies nationwide such as Toyota Motor and American Express have added health care services on site as a way to benefit both employer and employee.

The idea is that by housing a clinic on site, companies can save money and workers can save time.

In April, Rockwell Collins announced a new partnership with MercyCare Community Physicians to offer on-site health care to employees and families through telemedicine — allowing patients to talk remotely with Mercy physicians via secure video feeds from three area clinics.

The clinic, staffed by two nurses, provides care for acute conditions such as sinus, ear or urinary tract infections, rashes and flu.

At the time of its opening, Rockwell Collins officials said the on-site clinic could mean big savings for the company and its employees. Employees, it was predicted, will have shorter wait times — no more than five minutes — than if they were to go to another area clinic, which Rockwell Collins hopes it will cut down on absenteeism and increase productivity.

The team implementing the clinic at Rockwell Collins wanted to hold off on discussing patient visits and potential savings until the clinic hits the one-year mark. But Megan Schmitt, whose title is well-being ambassador, said the company has received lots of positive feedback.

'Patients have been pleasantly surprised at the convenience and ease of each visit and how personal it feels even via video technology,' she said via email.

Fantastic outcome

In Grinnell, the two-year-old clinic with attached fitness center has helped the company cut down on lost productivity — getting employees in, out and back to their desks in about 30 minutes — improved employee health and saved the company $250,000 to $500,000 in health care costs in its first year, said Larry Jansen, president and CEO of Grinnell Mutual, a reinsurance company.

Jansen asked Surgical Associates of Grinnell to provide help to its wellness program — working with employees who have diabetes to better manage the disease through diet, exercise and stress, as well as bring health costs down.

It was so successful, Jansen decided to offer similar services companywide. He got the idea approved by his board of directors and renovated a building already on-site to turn it into a health clinic, free to employees and their families on the company health plan, that has now had more than 12,500 patient visits.

'The outcome has been fantastic,' he said.

The clinic also is a way to recruit and retain employees, Jansen said.

'We need to make sure people want to work here,' he said, 'especially because we're in a small town in the middle of a cornfield.'

The clinic has a wide-ranging list of services, including mental health group sessions, skin cancer screenings, pregnancy tests and physicals.

'We work with people on weight loss, check blood pressure, do immunizations and allergy shots,' said Kasey Herbers, a physician assistant with Surgical Associates and who runs the on-site clinic.

Grinnell Mutual pays Surgical Associates an annual fee, and in return Herbers runs the clinic five days a week, from 8 a.m. until noon. It's open a bit longer on Tuesdays, Herbers said, and she is joined by a second PA who works with employees on weight loss and a therapist/social worker who helps run group therapy sessions for employees on issues such as stress management.

Most importantly, the clinic brings health care to people who might other wise not seek it, Herbers said, either because they commute from Des Moines and don't have the time to take a half-day off from work, or they are too busy.

'People have caught things,' including cancer and heart disease, she said. 'If they had not gone (to the clinic) when they did, they could have died.'

The clinic discovered something crucial for Jennifer Stiles, for one. The compliance filing analyst has thyroid disease. And it wasn't until she visited Stefanie Noun, the other PA working at the clinic, that she was aware another doctor had incorrectly prescribed her medicine, putting her on too high of doses.

'She caught it on my first visit,' Stiles said.