Ashley creating health and wellness center
By Jay McIntosh -- Furniture Today, April 6, 2008
Arcadia, Wis. — Aiming to promote worker wellness and head off soaring health care costs, Ashley Furniture is establishing the Ashley Health & Wellness Center on its manufacturing campus here.
Operated by Gundersen Lutheran Health System, a large regional health care network in Wisconsin and Iowa, the facility will provide basic medical services and preventive care for 15,000 Ashley employees in the area.
Ashley expects to invest an undisclosed amount in remodeling the 8,000-square-foot center and will subsidize its operation to help employees achieve improved health, officials said. It will be in the former Riverland Energy Building in Arcadia, which was to have been the site of an Ashley Furniture HomeStore training center. But that project will be relocated to another state.
"The Ashley Health & Wellness Center will be a primary care facility directed toward health improvement, prevention, early diagnosis and treatment," said Todd Wanek, Ashley CEO. "Our research indicates that heath and wellness centers, when supported by employees, not only work well but they also have the long-term benefit of improving employee health."
Employees will receive a financial incentive to support the facility — out-of-pocket costs for using the Health & Wellness Center's services will be less than half what they currently pay, the company said.
The center will deliver primary care, preventive care, physical therapy and wellness programs. Other care, such as specialty medicine, serious disease management and surgery, will continue to be provided by hospitals and other clinics in the region.
Health care costs have risen 85% since 2000, Ashley officials said. They added that they believe the best way to counteract that trend is to have healthier employees.
Ashley launched its wellness initiative by providing health risk exams, or mini-physicals, to more than 6,000 employees last fall. Results of those exams will help the company target its preventive care and wellness initiatives for 2008 and beyond.
The company said it also conducted an employee survey before deciding to invest in the center.
"The overwhelming majority of Ashley employees are in favor of this project and have committed their full support to making it successful," said Ron Wanek, company chairman.
Todd Wanek said that if the center meets expectations and achieves health improvements for workers in Arcadia, Whitehall and LaCrosse, Wis., the company will open similar facilities at its other locations.
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Ashley creating health and wellness center
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