Monday, January 5, 2009

City of Dallas opens employee medical clinic at City Hall

By Pegasus News wire

DALLAS — The City of Dallas has opened an employee medical clinic at City Hall to provide preventive, urgent, and acute medical services to city staff, their dependents, and retirees.

“The City of Dallas is committed to improving the health and well-being of its employees by providing convenient access to medical services,” said City Manager Mary K. Suhm. “We believe that providing basic medical services on-site will help improve the overall health and productivity of our employees, lower health care spending and reduce absenteeism.” Services provided by the clinic are free to all city health insurance plan members; a minimum fee will be charged to employees who are non-plan members.

Health care provider Concentra was selected by the City to operate the health and wellness center which is located on the first floor of Dallas City Hall. Concentra’s TotalCare service package blends urgent, acute, and preventive health services. It also combines best-practice strategies to help prevent disease and promote healthy lifestyles. In addition, it focuses on health education and employee engagement throughout its disease prevention and healthy lifestyles programs.

“We are proud to provide experienced health care to City employees directly, where and when they need medical services,” said Concentra CEO Jim Greenwood. “By improving the health and well-being of City employees, we can help build and strengthen the community and its residents.”

The clinic is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and is staffed by a physician, a mid-level practitioner, and/or a medical assistant or licensed vocational nurse. Nearly 30,000 people, including City staff, their dependents, and retirees have access to the full-service health and wellness facility.

Source: City of Dallas

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Comments

CitizenKane Anonymous

So does this mean that a sick person, who shoulda stayed home, will make it to the office for free treatment, contaminating his fellow office workers?

How much is this costing us(the taxpayers)?

This is a lawsuit waiting to happen...another bilking of us taxpayers. Isn't paid healthcare benfits and nearby Parkland, Baylor, and dozens of medical offices/clinics good enough?

Enquiring minds want to know.

5 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

jtmbls Anonymous

It will be interesting to see how the city screws this up. Right off the bat the numbers look promising. 1 doctor, 1 physician’s assistant and 1 nurse/30,000 people. Good luck.

5 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Pavel Lishin Verified

What free treatment is there against the cold/flu once you already have it? I'm pretty sure that if I had the flu, the existence of a free clinic on site wouldn't really affect my decision to stay home or to come in and lick all my coworkers' keyboards.

5 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )