VERO BEACH — A majority of Indian River County School District employees and retirees who took part in a survey said they would use an on-site employee clinic should the school district go forward and create one.
Of the 1,280 people who responded to the yes or no question, 74 percent said yes, 24 percent said no and only 2 percent said maybe.
A total of 1,900 people were surveyed. The return rate of survey was 68 percent, something in itself that is impressive, said Denise Roberts, the executive director for human resources for the school district.
For more than a year, the school district has been exploring the idea of an on-site employee health and wellness clinic in an attempt to curb high costs of health care.
The school district is self-insured and pays back Blue Cross/Blue Shield for bills the employees and their dependents rack up.
Many municipalities, government agencies and school districts are now moving toward offering employees of such entities an option of going to on-site health and wellness centers where prescriptions can be purchased at a bulk – and therefore much lower – rate.
Another idea driving the push to these on-site clinics to is try and minimize the costs associated with annual physicals and random drug testing among other things.
It would cost roughly $1 million a year to run the clinic. Participation is key – having more people use the on-site clinic for routine exams rather than going through a private doctor which would typically drive up the costs to the school district
For two hours Tuesday, school board members discussed the idea and came away from the meeting saying they needed more information before they would commit to it.
Board member Karen Disney Brombach said she has been hearing a great deal from members in the community who don’t think this is the direction the school district should be taking.
The board decided to meet again at 1 p.m. Nov. 5.
