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Mid-market employer Hatco to build on-site wellness clinic

Posted On: Mar. 19, 2012 12:00 AM CST

Mid-market employer Hatco to build on-site wellness clinic

MILWAUKEE—Food-service appliance manufacturer Hatco Corp. plans to build an on-site health and wellness clinic at its Sturgeon Bay, Wis., manufacturing plant.

Scheduled to open this summer, Hatco's Health and Wellness Center will provide a range of wellness services to the plant's 300 employees and their dependents, executives for the middle-market employer said Friday. These include preventative health screenings, adult immunizations, acute medical care, prescription services and chronic disease treatment.

“Wellness programs continue to evolve, and it's been an area of focus for us for more than 10 years,” said Milwaukee-based Hatco Vp Randy Baumgart. “This is just another step in that direction. Ultimately, it's about improving wellness and reducing costs, and helping our employees and their dependents become wise health care consumers.”

Mr. Baumgart said the 2,000-square-foot clinic will include two exam rooms and a physical therapy room, and will be staffed part-time with a nurse practitioner and physical therapist.

Hatco President and CEO David Rolston said the company based the programming of its on-site clinic on several other industry peers' and similarly-sized companies' working models.

“We looked at four or five clinics that other companies had done and had experienced some good results with,” Mr. Rolston said. “We certainly had some good examples to go on. We were surprised that there were that many out there doing it.”

Mr. Baumgart said initial plans are to staff the wellness center for about 30 hours per week during alternating shifts to allow for greater employee access.

“Obviously, we hope it's a raging success and we have to add hours in the future,” Mr. Baumgart said.