When Davenport 4th Ward Ald. Jade Burkholder worked as an inspector for the city, she saw injured coworkers sit for hours in a waiting room before being seen by a medical provider.
“We’re still paying them for the hours worked. Plus whoever had to take them to sit in a waiting room,” Burkholder told her fellow council members Wednesday.
The city is hoping to change that with a new proposal to take some occupational health services in-house.
The goal is to make it more efficient for employees to seek treatment for a work-related injury by remodeling a portion of the Public Works Center and contracting a health care provider — likely a nurse practitioner — to be available on-site for city employees.
Currently, employees who need health services in order to work, such as physicals, treatment for work-related injuries, drug and alcohol screenings or return-to-work evaluations, go to a MercyOne Genesis location on 53rd Street, which also handles urgent care and contracts with other employers.
Human Resources Director Alison Fleming said the initial focus for the proposed internal wellness center would be on workplace injury treatment, physicals and drug and alcohol screenings. Employees may still be referred to specialists or other providers.
Some examples of occupational injuries may be a firefighter hurting their shoulder responding to a blaze or a police officer twisting their knee while on duty.
Also, public transit employees require physicals in order to retain their license.
The city set aside about $1 million for the wellness center, with about $750,000 coming from the city’s health fund and $250,000 coming from its risk fund.
City Administrator Doug Maxeiner said the expected savings to the city is about $600,000 to $800,000 a year. City staff project that it would take a little less than two years to see a return on the investment.
“It basically focuses all of our occupational health-type activities internally here so we don’t have to send a future employee to a doctor’s office and wait a week and a half to get an appointment. We can do that in a very quick turnaround,” Maxeiner said. “We can also do work-related injuries on site, allowing better treatment and case management in those instances. … This allows us to do fitness-for-duty for employees who may have been injured before we send them back in that might aggravate that injury. It allows us to have a health care professional assess that internally.”
Sixth Ward Alderman Ben Jobgen said he is “extremely supportive” of the wellness center.
“I spent the first 10 years of my career working for an occupational medicine provider,” Jobgen said. “John Deere uses this model. Arconic uses this model. … It’s a way in which you can definitely control costs.”
The city council will vote on the proposed wellness center at its regular meeting Sept. 24.
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Sarah Watson
Davenport, Scott County, local politics
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