Loretta Schmidt, President of Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center Plymouth Campus appeared before the Marshall County Commissioners on Monday with a professional services agreement.
The proposal will offer county employees and their dependents who have insurance through the county to acute care and a health and wellness program at the Health Center in the Community Resource Center.
Commissioner Kevin Overmyer said they have been talking about a wellness program for employees for three or four years. The hospital presented a solution for a trial basis for 6 months beginning July 1st.
The agreement offers acute care with an RN at the clinic at no cost. If the patient needs to see the nurse practitioner there is a cost of $75 that will be paid for by the county. Schmidt said there is a shortage of family care physicians not just here but across the nation. It’s hoped this medical office care will reduce the number of trips to the ER and allow workers to see someone the same day, in fact, with in 10 minutes or less. Schmidt also noted that with electronic medical records the employee’s records will be available to the RN or nurse practitioner and once seen the records will be forwarded to the primary care provider.
If additional care is needed such as tests and prescriptions that cost will be handled by the employee’s county insurance.
The health and wellness portion can offer county employees on the insurance plan screening, education, health fairs, activities and chronic disease management.
Schmidt pointed out the benefits to the agreement: employee satisfaction, decreased loss of work hours and early intervention.
Overmyer said, “This is kind of a gap between going to the doctor and waiting several days or weeks to get in the their primary care physician.”
The commissioners unanimously approved the trial agreement.
