Company care: Employers turn to on-site clinics

Large corporations are finding that putting physicians on the payroll can keep workers at work by preventing injuries and promoting wellness. And offering work-site clinics saves money.

By Mark Moran, AMNews correspondent. April 1, 2002.

W hole Health Clinic, for employees of Continental Airlines at Cleveland's Hopkins Airport, has the look and feel of a doctor's office anywhere: waiting area, receptionist's window, exam rooms. And on a recent morning, Stephen Weirich, MD, a family physician and corporate medical director at Whole Health, prepares to treat complaints familiar to any primary care practice.

But Dr. Weirich's work at the clinic also has taken him out of the confines of the office and into some places the average family doctor never ventures -- such as the cramped baggage compartments of airplanes where some Continental employees work loading and unloading luggage.

That's the kind of firsthand experience a physician needs when 80% of his patients present with work-related injuries or illness. "There are some real ergonomic issues there," Dr. Weirich said.

Then there's the framed poster in the clinic that reads: "Rule No. 1: If the customers don't like it here, they'll go someplace else."

The sign would appear to be something more than a platitude, since the patients who visit the clinic are insured under conventional employer-sponsored health insurance. Sidestepping managed care plans, Cleveland-based Whole Health Management Inc. contracts directly with the employer to provide a service that complements those plans; employees come to the Whole Health clinic because they incur no cost and no co-payment, because it is conveniently located at the airport or because they like it there -- but if they don't like it, they do have other choices. [...]