WS Chronicle

By Algenon Cash

Recently Wake Forest Baptist Health opened a new Occupational Medicine Clinic in East Winston-Salem.  I had the unique honor to attend the ribbon cutting along with special guests Mayor Allen Joines, Councilmember Annette Scippio, and Chief Wellness Officer William Satterwhite. 

BestHealth For Business is a service that offers comprehensive direct-to-employer health care, wellness and occupational medicine solutions designed to improve health, productivity and satisfaction while helping to control rising healthcare-related costs. The newly opened clinic will play a critical role in delivering this important service to local employers. 

The health services include: on-site nursing, work injury management, physicals, breath alcohol screenings, urine drug screen collection, respirator fit testing, pulmonary function testing, vaccinations, education on first aid/CPR, vision and hearing screenings. 

The cost of employee health care has risen over 30% since 2013, yet the workforce is sicker than ever. BestHealth for Business provides an innovative approach to wellness and preventive medicine that can drastically reduce employer costs, which leads to healthier employees and a healthier bottom line. 

Mayor Joines praised Wake Forest Baptist Health for being the county’s largest employer, a significant contributor to the community at-large, and for consistently utilizing innovation and technology to better serve residents. 

The clinic is located at 2295 East 14th Street – a building that was largely vacant for the past decade and a half. East Ward Councilmember Scippio used the announcement to highlight economic development activity in East Winston-Salem.  The clinic will house 15 employees and serve countless patients – bringing fresh activity to an area greatly in need. 

East Winston-Salem remains in desperate need of private investment and the newly opened clinic is a big step in the right direction. We all should applaud Wake Forest Baptist Health for considering ways to participate in the revitalization of the area. The direct impact will come from the jobs, but the indirect impact will be a result of attracting people into the area who may be uneducated on the resurgence happening in the area. 

Councilmember Scippio also commented on the ageing studies that will be conducted at the clinic. Researchers will interview participants to look at a variety of illnesses solely impacting the ageing population – for example Alzheimers. Many of the participants could potentially be sourced directly from East Winston-Salem. 

I personally spoke with Associate Vice President Danielle Lamphier who was not only excited about the new clinic, but equally thrilled about the potential outcomes that could be altered from the group’s work. Lamphier talked about a local employer that self-insures their employees and recorded a 90% drop in emergency room visits as a result of participating in the program.   

Diabetes negatively affects the African American population – a group largely residing in East Winston-Salem. Lamphier believes the preventive medicine research being done at the clinic would assist many of the people forced to deal with the chronic disease.

I personally invite you to visit the new clinic and check out what they are doing to serve the area.  You can request a tour, receive more information about the services, and discover unique ways the clinic may be able to help serve you.

Congrats to Wake Forest Baptist Health.

Algenon Cash is a nationally recognized speaker and the managing director of Wharton Gladden & Company, an investment banking firm. Reach him at acash@algenoncash.com