Dougherty County employee wellness center nears completion

ALBANY — If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the city of Albany has reason to feel flattered as officials in Dougherty County close in on the completion of their latest employee-benefiting project.

Officials with Albany’s Newell Construction Co. said Tuesday that, barring some unforeseen issue, they plan to turn the county’s new employee wellness center at 116 N. Jackson St. over to the county by mid-January, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.

Once that facility is complete, county employees who are participating in their group health insurance plan — like their counterparts with the city — will have a handy clinic available that will provide primary health care and generic medications at no cost.

“Wellness centers and health clinics have become a trend over the last 10 years, and more and more employers have utilized them to help keep their employees more healthy,” Dougherty County Administrator Richard Crowdis said Monday. “These centers give employees an opportunity to have their health problems diagnosed earlier and offer preventive care that heads the problems off early. Healthier employees are more productive employees.

“The city of Albany has been proactive in providing a wellness center for their employees for the past three or four years, and we have watched them closely. They’ve gotten good results from their center, so for the past two years or so we’ve been talking with our health care consultant and our Insurance Review Committee about implementing our own center. About a year ago the recommendation was made to provide a wellness center for our employees, and we’re almost ready to move in.”

The county sent out a request for proposals to run the center and selected CareHere! of Brentwood, Tenn., as its provider. That name is familiar in the community, as it is the same group that is directing operations in the city’s clinic, located at 1900 N. Monroe St.

“The bid for services was carefully vetted, and the vendor selected is the same one that is operating the city’s clinic,” Crowdis said. “That’s reassuring for us because the vendor who will be working with our employees is already working with city employees from the same demographics, healthwise. And they’ve had lots of success with their city program.”

CareHere! provided specifications for the clinic structure, and Newell won the bid to turn the former coffee shop at county-owned property on North Jackson into a medical clinic. Crowdis said that while the cost of the project is around $185,000, he gave Newell the OK to use overtime if necessary to meet an end-of-January deadline.

But Newell project supervisor Lisa Kennedy said Wednesday the company expects to complete its work around Jan. 15, a good two weeks before completion is scheduled.

“We’re actually ahead of schedule on this project,” Kennedy said. “But this was a pretty open space, so there weren’t a whole lot of issues with the work. Officials with (CareHere!) did a walk-through and kind of gave us an idea what they were expecting, and things have progressed well.”

Assistant Albany City Manager Wes Smith, who is temporarily handling Human Resources duties for the city, said Tuesday the city employee wellness center has been a “godsend.” With 91 percent of employees in the city’s group health plan participating in the wellness program, the city has realized overall health care savings of $707,000, while employees have saved $395,000 in co-pay costs.

“We’ve been ecstatic about how well CareHere! has done with our clinic and how big an impact it’s had on the city,” Smith said. “It’s been a win for the city and a win for our employees. And another benefit that you don’t readily see is that, because the wellness center offers preventive care, we’re not seeing the big claims that we had in the past.

“For a lot of employees, especially those on the lower end of the pay scale, this has been a godsend. It will take the county a minute or two to get everything in place, but once they do they’re going to see that this is a wonderful benefit. It makes a big difference in health care costs.”

Crowdis said a physician and a nurse practitioner have been hired by CareHere! to provide scheduled 20-minute clinic visits for 20 hours each week. The county administrator said he expects the number of hours to increase as use of the clinic increases.

“The city has discovered that savings come from early diagnosis and treatment,” Crowdis said. “And employees are much more likely to take better care of themselves when they have access to free primary care, free assessment and free generic medications.

“The thing is, when you have a group insurance plan, you’re going to pay one way or another. Whether its preventive care or major illnesses or surgeries, you’re going to pay. But, hopefully, with the participation of your employees, you can contain the costs by treating health issues before they become chronic.”