How Onsite Care Provides Better Outcomes for Employers and Employees
When workers are healthy and have their injuries cared for quickly, both workers and employers benefit. The worker gets the care they need to heal and return to their duties, and the organization doesn’t lose out on that employee’s work output.
By providing your workers with easy access to onsite care for their work-related illnesses and injuries, you will see the benefits to your organization and to your workers grow exponentially.
What Is Onsite Care?
Onsite care is any occupational healthcare services your ill and injured workers receive without having to leave your facility (or, at the most, traveling to an employer-sponsored clinic nearby). The onsite clinic is staffed by experienced, licensed medical professionals who can evaluate your worker’s condition and, when possible, provide care right then and there.
For more complex cases or emergency situations, the onsite care team helps your worker find the appropriate level of offsite, in-network care for their needs.
Services Offered with Onsite Care
Although the makeup of onsite care differs from one occupational healthcare provider and employer to the next, many provide a similar suite of services, such as:
- Injury and illness triage
- Basic physical exams
- First aid
- Wound care
- Blood pressure screenings
- Drug and alcohol testing
- Weight checks
- DOT physicals
- Medical surveillance
- Flu shots
The needs of your organization, the needs of your workers and the occupational health provider you select will determine what individual services are available at your onsite care clinic.
Benefits of Onsite Care for Employers
As an employer, offering onsite care opens you up to a whole host of benefits.
Improved Productivity and Reduced Absenteeism
When workers are injured and must travel to their nearest doctor’s office, urgent care facility or emergency room for care, they’re missing hours — sometimes a full day or more — of work. That’s a huge cost sink for your business, especially if you’re already short staffed, in the middle of a busy season or don’t have a lot of backup help you can call in.
If your workers can receive care onsite, your workforce productivity will increase.
For those more minor illnesses and injuries that just require first aid, care can be rendered on the spot and the worker can return to their duties. This means they miss just minutes of work when compared with the hours or days they may miss if receiving offsite care.
Workers who have more serious or complex conditions that require rehabilitation and recuperation time can, once they’ve returned to work, receive their follow-up care at your onsite clinic during the regular workday. This reduces absenteeism related to care for on-the-job injuries, further improving worker productivity.
Cost Savings on Healthcare Expenses
Sending every injured worker for offsite care means you lose control over the cost of care. With research showing that an estimated 20% of all medical care is not necessary, this could cost you thousands. Additionally, you are required to pay workers for the time they’re off work receiving treatment.
When you host an onsite clinic, however, your injury-related healthcare expenses become much more manageable.
You pay one fee to your occupational healthcare team, which covers all the care they provide to your workers. There will still be costs related to any offsite care your workers need, but because you’ll be sending fewer workers offsite for care, and the care they receive will be managed by your onsite care team, your costs will be lower than before.
Boosted Employee Morale
Workers who feel their employer cares about their health and wellbeing are more likely to give you their best work and stay employed at your organization for longer. Having access to onsite care, even if they never get injured on the job, can signal to your team that you value them and have taken steps to keep them safe and healthy.
And when workers feel their employer cares about them, they are more engaged at work. Higher rates of worker engagement not only improve your business’s productivity, it also makes your workers less likely to have accidents that could lead to on-the-job injuries.
Benefits of Onsite Care for Employees
Access to onsite care also has a wealth of benefits for your employees.
Convenient Access to Care
Work-related injuries can be frightening, even if they are somewhat minor. The faster your workers receive care, the more quickly their minds can be put at ease and they can focus on getting better.
By being able to visit your onsite clinic as soon as an injury occurs, they get the treatment they need to get better and return to work.
Additionally, your workers can visit your onsite care team with concerns not directly related to on-the-job injuries or illnesses. If a worker has concerns about their blood pressure, for example, they can make a quick stop at your onsite clinic for a blood pressure check and either receive a clean bill of health or instructions to make a follow-up appointment with their offsite care provider. This helps your team stay healthier overall.
Reduced Time Away from Work
Receiving offsite care, even if your worker has been cleared to return to their duties, can take a lot of time. Many specialized care providers, such as physical therapists, are only open during work hours. This means your injured workers must take even more time off work to receive care.
Having onsite care allows your workers to receive some of their follow-up care without having to leave work. They can stop by your onsite clinic for a wound check or physical therapy appointment before or after work, or on their lunch hour, spending less time traveling and keeping them more focused and productive during the workday.
Improved Health
A Gallup poll found that nearly 38% of Americans said they or a family member skipped or delayed medical care in 2022 because of concerns over the cost of care. That same poll found that 27% of those respondents skipped care for “very” or “somewhat” serious conditions or illnesses.
Being unable to access care — whether it’s due to cost or the inability to schedule an appointment — means many of your workers may not be at their best at work.
Providing onsite care gives your workers convenient access to trusted medical professionals who may be able to help them with their non-work-related medical concerns. And, if your onsite care team cannot help a worker with their needs, they can refer that worker to appropriate care that can help them. This makes them more likely to receive necessary medical care than if they were managing everything on their own.
Additionally, your onsite clinic can provide a range of services that can keep your workforce healthier and higher performing, including flu shots and drug and alcohol testing. These services can reduce the rate of illnesses and injuries on the job, keeping your workers safe.
Your Partner in Quality Onsite Care
Medcor provides onsite care to teams just like yours all across North America. Our onsite clinics provide immediate evaluation and treatment for work-related injuries, and our team navigates workers to the appropriate level of offsite care when necessary. See what an onsite clinic can do for your organization. Speak with an advocate today.