Employer clinics get results

Sometimes, old ideas get repackaged and re-used for good reason. In this case it's the notion of employer-delivered healthcare, which dates back at least to when Kaiser first established a hospital and clinic for employees in the 1930s. The evidence continues to mount that this is a good idea in today's healthcare marketplace. According to an article in the Orlando Sentinel, a growing number of large employers have begun to offer on-site medical clinics for employee use in an effort to slow mounting healthcare costs. The idea is that if employees can easily access on-site medical care, they're less likely to ignore symptoms and develop serious, expensive-to-treat conditions.

For example, thanks to screenings by an affiliated clinic, one central Florida employer picked up a dozen diabetes cases, three breast cancer cases, a bladder mass and three sleep apnea diagnoses, the Sentinel reports. Given their benefits, researchers say, expect to see more of these clinics over the next 12 months. A survey consulting firm Watson Wyatt found that 22 percent of companies with 2,000 workers or more have established clinics for employees onsite or near their offices. The survey predicts that the percentage of large companies with on-site clinics will climb to 27 percent by the end of 2007.

To get more details on the on-site clinic trend:
- read this article in the Orlando Sentinel

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