ASHEBORO – Randolph County employees have enjoyed the Employee Wellness Center – a wellness program aimed to better support and retain county employees and their families – for just more than a year now and they could see even more of it in the coming years.
At its meeting Monday, the Randolph County Board of Commissioners approved a new contract with Atrium Health for the expansion of staffing at the Employee Wellness Center in anticipation of increased demand and expanded wellness initiatives.
“We’ve had our clinic open for about 14 months and we’ve had tremendous success,” wellness administrator Sam Varner said. “It’s been greatly accepted by our employees and their spouses. For the last year, we’ve experienced great utilization. We’ve averaged about 150 visits per month – about a 95% utilization rate – which has exceeded what we’ve expected.”
Varner said the clinic also had a 98% satisfaction rating based on patient surveys and there have been substantial savings in worker’s comp insurance, drug screenings and blood-borne pathogen program.
“The average return on investment for any employee wellness after three years is 3-to-1, which means that for every dollar you spend on this investment, you get three dollars in savings on healthcare costs,” Varner said. “Right now, with our clinic being open for about 14 months, we are averaging about 1.5 dollars to one, so we’re already saving money on our investment.”
The contract will increase by approximately $200,000 for an annual cost of a little more than $600,000 and will cover an additional full-time certified medical assistant and a part-time advanced practice professional (PA, NP).
The increased cost is already covered in the existing health plan budget.
“As they say, the proof is in the pudding when you look at the numbers,” commissioner Hope Haywood said. “The process of getting the right provider was thorough and when you get the right provider, your employees have confidence in that. I think we have more than gotten a bang for our buck.”
The board also approved an updated watershed protection ordinance in order to bring the ordinance in line with state standards.
“Randolph County Watershed Protection Ordinance is a tool that allows staff to provide the public with a framework to successfully utilize property within the designated watershed while simultaneously protecting water quality and the environment,” assistant county manager William Johnson said. “The proposed changes allow for a slight increase in the amount of impervious surface allowed in the watershed areas to more closely match the state model watershed ordinance.”
“Last month, we approved a new watershed ordinance for the county,” board chair Darrell Frye said. “We’ve since learned that we were using, in particular, an old percentage item that was out of date relative to the state model watershed ordinance. So basically what we’re doing is making that correction in a new provision.”
The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet April 7.
