A while back, I was contacted by a businessman whose chief frustration with healthcare for his workers (aside from premium costs!) was having an employee disappear for a doctor's appointment, only to reappear three or four hours later.

On researching the problem, he discovered that his staff were sitting in physician offices waiting for up to an hour before being seen. And then taking another hour to have their visit, and receive a prescription or get a lab test done.

His proposed solution? - hire his own physician, and set him or her up in an office adjacent to the corporate headquarters!

It appears that he is part of a growing trend. Medicine is not only moving to the shopping mall but into the workplace. In a post on his blog, Medinnovation, Dr. Richard Reece wrote the following last week about a Florida company, MyCareTLC:

More than 100 of the nation’s 1,000 largest employers now offer on-site primary care or preventive health services — forecast to exceed 250 by the end of 2007. Companies opening or expanding these clinics include Toyota, Sprint Nextel, Florida Power and Light, Credit Suisse and Pepsi Bottling, and a small company in Florida called MyCareTLC, which plans to franchise these clinics across multiple corporate settings.

According to MyCareTLC, these clinics are projected to save as much as 45% to 50% in health care expenses for employers.

How? Well, it’s claimed company doctors onsite can conveniently assess the situation, prescribe generic drugs on site, follow best practice guidelines, and refer to pre-selected specialists, judged by data mining to be the best performers, the most quality oriented, and the most economical.

Furthermore, employees need not travel to see a doctor for routine care, pay no co-pay, receive generics at cost, and they and their families can be coached on healthy living and preventive care.

To my ears, this represents yet another entrepreneurial opportunity for physicians who are seeking the freedom to operate their own primary care/occupational health businesses while being provided a guaranteed supply of patients. And a franchise, if operated well, offers enough business support and marketing presence to remove some of the risk of a start-up.

Who has any experience with these worksite clinics? I'd love to find out more!