ECISD clinic making strides
Jan. 29—Almost a year in, the Ector County ISD Health and Wellness Center has seen steady activity, but is still working to attract patients.
"We have posters throughout our campuses reconfirming and reminding our staff that ... they're participants in our medical plan, they are eligible to use the Wellness Center at no cost. If they are participants of the medical plan, option 3 HSA (Health Savings Account), they only have to pay a $25 copay," Benefits & Risk Management Director Yolanda Gordon said.
The clinic opened to ECISD staff and families Feb. 28, 2022. However, its first full day was March 1.
Treatments and services include things like adult immunization, allergies, asthma, annual physicals, treatment for colds, congestion and flu; diabetic education and management's high blood pressure; high cholesterol; treatment for minor injuries; thyroid disorders; and well women exams.
If there is an additional service that's needed, Gordon said the Wellness Center staff handles the referral process.
Women can be referred for mammograms, but they also have mammogram evening events for staff members twice a year in the Midland area and the Odessa area.
"This is going into our second year where we promote health and awareness. We have campaigns that we participate in with our Wellness Center. We do campaigns on a monthly basis," Gordon said.
For January, information on getting in better shape was provided.
"Our management team is CareATC. We meet with them weekly and they provide us educational tools. They provide us bulletins, newsletters, that we forward to our district staff through our newsletters which we distribute monthly on the third Friday of every month," Gordon said.
"The big part of having a Wellness Center for our first year was the educational piece, making sure that the staff understood that we encourage them to utilize the Wellness Center. It's at no cost to them, or a very minimal copay and this is so that we can assist them and becoming more aware of their well-being," Gordon said.
There is also a licensed clinical social worker at the Wellness Center.
"We focus not only on the physical well being, but on the mental well-being," Gordon said.
She added that they still participate in the Employment Assistance Program, which provides six mental health, clinical visits for employees and their families.
"However, this part (the licensed clinical social worker) we put in place because we do know that there is a greater need than there was before. ... With our Wellness Center in place, it only made sense that we keep the well-being of our staff members, as well as their family members by providing this service. This is something that we're very proud of, because it's a matter of just giving her a call. We have virtual visits (and) on-site visits on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays," she said.
With their management team, they had a webinar in December on how to beat the holiday blues.
Gordon said a lot of what they try to do is make people aware that they are not alone and they are going to do everything they can to keep them physically and mentally healthy.
She added that their jobs take a lot of teachers, counselors, food service, custodial and transportation workers — anyone on staff.
"We want them to know that we're available and we're routinely making surveys and checking to see how we can better our service. We are basically always providing educational and training tools to our staff so that they can feel comfortable in knowing that the whole purpose of our Wellness Center is to assist them health-wise (and keep them) mentally and emotionally well," Gordon said.
"We now know that social-emotional learning is a very big part of our function. We know that if we're not happy mentally, it's going to be very difficult to stay healthy, so we incorporate the two," she said.
They use mapping tools to give them an idea of how utilization is increasing each month.
"It's being monitored on a monthly basis and once we have the full year complete, we'll have better projections; the ability to show how we've grown in educating our staff and family members to the services that we provide there," Gordon said.
She noted that use has increased each month and every month they meet to go over the numbers and review surveys.
"You know how when you go to a doctor's office, they send you a survey after ... we provide that as well. Once our staff members or family members go, they're given the option of rating that visit and we build off of that. We've had really positive feedback. If we see that something's not making sense, we always investigate it and then we try to fix that before it becomes a problem," Gordon said.
She added that they take the surveys seriously.
"It's very important as to how we're going to build the benefits that we provide," she said.
People can still go anywhere for their doctor's visits, immunizations or whatever they need. However, Gordon wants people to know that the Health and Wellness Center offers a zero copay.
"When you weigh having a $50 copay to see your regular doctor or zero copay, sometimes it makes it a lot easier as to where you go," Gordon said.
"What we had noticed when we were looking to establish the Health and Wellness Center was that there were a lot of doctors (and) doctors' offices that were two or three weeks out. ... With our center, we've set it up to where we will see them as soon as the next available appointment. If you get on our website or the apps, or they can call a 1-800 number, they can set up that appointment as it's convenient to them," Gordon said.
The 800 number is (800) 993-8244.
She added that a doctor's visit can cost $225 or more.
"We try to accommodate the schedules of our teachers, of our food service, of transportation. We're constantly reviewing our hours of operation to make sure we don't have to tweak them. After the first full year, (we'll) know what we need to do; if we need to adjust those time slots to accommodate more of our teachers because, of course, they're in classrooms. We have our bus drivers constantly driving, so we want to make sure that we are continuously growing and accommodating their needs," she added.
Their goal is that once they have completed a full first year, the utilization numbers will be made available to the board of directors and then they will be made public.
Her goal is to have 80 to 95 percent utilization.
The center is located at 221 N. Sam Houston Ave.
"We're ... centered in the medical district. (We're) super excited about its location because if there have to be referrals, our physician and our nurse practitioners are doing all the referrals. They do the prescription call-ins; they do the follow up on medications. There's so much that we're doing to help our staff members that have to run around," Gordon said.
She added that the Wellness Center's goal is to get the patients seen in a timely manner. The first visit will always take more time because they are gathering critical information to maintain patients' health records.
"From that point forward, it's just really a quick overview, checkup and you're on your way," Gordon said.
The Wellness Center has two nurse practitioners, a physician and two medical assistants. The center has three examining rooms, a triage room, and a lab and supply room and a large waiting area. There also is an office for the mental health professional.
"The atmosphere is very pleasant. I am so very thankful for the staff that supports that. We continuously provide that positive feedback to our Wellness Center team because they're an important part of what we do," Gordon said.
She said the surveys that are returned note the friendly staff and those reviews are passed on to the staff.
"CareATC takes care of the hiring process. We still have a lot of input into the important roles like the doctor's offices, the nurse practitioners. We get to have a visit with them before they actually do the hiring to make sure that it's a good fit. My goal is always to make sure they understand that the intent is to keep our staff healthy. Now, does that mean that everybody's going to be nice? Maybe not. But we want to be sure that they feel that the goal is to provide a service that we didn't have before," Gordon said.
She added that she continues to encourage staff to use the Wellness Center.
"We've put up posters in our teachers' lounges ... throughout our administration building. We have them in all the lounges here like the dining area and we even have it on every floor where we have them framed, thanks to Mike Adkins in communications. We have continuously provided those very important pieces that make it fit together. However, we know out of sight, out of mind, so we continuously ... promote the Wellness Center. We're hoping that maybe this year, it being the breakthrough year, then the years to come will be so much stronger and utilization and the understanding of what it's there for," she said.
