What is the value of on-site clinics?

What is the value of on-site clinics? What is the value of on-site clinics? June 26, 2018

Value can be calculated in a number of ways. Employers typically calculate value in terms of their bottom line. Employees may view value in terms of how something benefits them or makes their life better. The value of on-site clinics can actually be calculated both ways.

As the National Association of Worksite Health Centers (NAWHC) states, “Leading employers are beginning (to) realize that by offering the services that force employees to leave work, they can reduce the cost and better manage the health of their covered populations, while improving productivity, since they’ll have reduced the number of situations and the time off the job by workers seeking medical care.”

In addition, “onsite clinical staff increase the engagement of their workers in the multiple preventive and condition management programs they offer. This type of population health approach effectively identifies unnecessary services, gaps in care, opportunities for savings, and quality variations to be addressed.”

On-site clinics help to increase employees’ health as well as their satisfaction with their job. The added benefit of convenient access to healthcare encourages them to become more engaged in their own health management. Employees who visit the on-site clinic for preventive services, well checks, immunizations, and other basic primary care services spend less time out of the office and more time focused on their health outcomes.

For those employees who do not have a primary care physician, the on-site clinic can serve as such. For those who do, the clinic staff can share information that leads to a more integrated and more effective healthcare treatment plan for employees. As the NAWHC states, “Worksite centers need to connect and share patients' data with a patient’s own physician. It also offers a source of primary and acute care for that 40 - 60 % of employees who don’t have a personal physician.”

On-site clinics provide value to both employer and employee, offering cost savings, convenient access, and incentives for a healthier workforce.