As a safety-net health system, Dallas-based Parkland Health provides care to community members who are typically underserved and at high risk.
"In order to take care of them, we've got to take care of ourselves," Ryan Alcantar, vice president of employee health and wellness at Parkland, told Becker's.
More than 30% of Parkland's workforce lives in the same high-risk communities, facing similar disease burdens, social determinants of health and cancer risk to their patients, Mr. Alcantar said. And in 2019, Parkland identified a critical need to prioritize employee health and well-being.
Parkland's three-tiered approach to employee wellness emphasizes a "whole-person" strategy that includes physical and mental health, financial health and workplace well-being, said Tawana McCullough, the health system's senior director of shared services and benefits.
This focus spurred the development of on-site medical services providing outpatient and advanced primary care for employees, including dental, optometry and women's health services.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parkland recognized a heightened need to address employee mental health. An anxiety screener using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale at the on-site center revealed that the average score was significantly above the norm in that period.
"It told us right out of the gates that we have a workforce that is anxious, overworked and burdened, and their overall well-being is being compromised," he said. This prompted Parkland to invest in an on-site psychologist, social workers and other support services.
To promote financial well-being, Parkland increased its minimum wage in 2024 and has kept medical premiums flat for two years, Ms. McCullough told Becker's.
"Organizations have been talking about wellness for a long time," Mr. Alcantar said. "The problem is that wellness has become an industry buzzword."
He pointed out that wellness efforts often focus on exercise programs or workforce challenges that do not significantly affect overall well-being.
Achieving wellness among the workforce requires patience, he added.
"Be prepared for the long game. This isn't something that you're going to get an immediate return on investment in a traditional sense," Mr. Alcantar said. "Understanding the full value statement and not just the return on dollars in a particular area is really important."