ISD Continues Focus on Employee Health, Wellness

ISD board members and administrators continued emphasis on employee health and wellness is paying huge dividends. Employee visits to the district’s wellness/fitness center and participation in wellness programs have gone up while, thanks to the employee health clinic, the district’s health care costs continue to go down.

“Our employees have really embraced the wellness and health care options the ISD provides,” said Dr. Dale Herl, ISD superintendent, “and we have the numbers to prove it.”

Since the employee health clinic, located inside the district’s central office, opened in 2012, the ISD has saved more than $1.75 million in health care costs and saved employees more than $130,000. Worker’s comp claim costs have dropped nearly 70 percent and worker’s comp claims have dropped almost 20 percent. Herl said cost savings are important, but there was another number he found equally impressive. “In our post service surveys, 99.9 percent of patients said they would refer their co-workers and their families to the employee health clinic,” he said. “That speaks volumes to the quality of care our employees are receiving there.”

Inside the ISD’s 9,000 square foot wellness center, also located in the district’s central office, employees work out from early in the morning until late in the day. The facility is filled with state-of-the-art fitness equipment and two full-time wellness employees who can provide free personalized exercise plans. Speaking of free, the center is free to ISD employees, spouses, dependents ages 18-26 and ISD retirees and spouses. Nearly 5,000 have used the wellness center since it opened three years ago, visiting the facility almost 27,000 times! Herl said thanks to the wellness center, the district’s wellness program and the health clinic, the impact on the ISD financially and ISD employees physically, has been enormous.

“Since we opened these facilities in 2012, health-related employee absences have dropped almost 10 percent,” Herl said, “and that reduction in employee absence has saved the ISD more than $250,000 in replacement staffing costs.”

Cost benefits and health benefits aside, Herl said the clinic and wellness center are big selling points to perspective employees. “These facilities have become, in essence, recruiting tools,” he said.

“It’s just another incentive the ISD can use to bring the best teachers, administrators and staff to Independence.”