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Helping to reduce the cost of lost time away from work to see the doctor, dentist or physiotherapist

Bupa Centres provide on-site medical services for a number of organisations in many different industries to help them reduce the amount of time their employees spend off work to see a doctor, dentist or physiotherapist.

Between June 2002 and July 2003, we collected lost time savings data relating to the services provided by our primary care team, our physiotherapy and osteopathy team, and our dental care team for a leading financial services organisation.

During the 14-month period there were 4,384 GP consultations, 3,787 physiotherapy and osteopathy consultations, and 2,376 dental consultations. These were private consultations paid for by the employee, meaning no cost to the company apart from providing the space.

We estimate that employees would normally have taken an average of three hours away from the office to see these practitioners. With our on-site services, they were only away from work for an average of 30 minutes, one hour and one hour, respectively.

The lost time would have been 31,641 hours for employees to visit these practitioners if the services were not available on-site.

The total lost time saved as a result of the on-site services was 23,286 hours. At a conservative average salary of £25 per hour, we can therefore estimate a saving to the company of £582,150.

This does, of course, assume that all the employees would have taken time off had the service not been available on-site. There is, however, no doubt that early intervention reduces the chances of a condition becoming more complex and more expensive to treat, leading to savings in long-term absence.

As the firm did not record sickness absence data for this period, we have regrettably not been able to add this valuable information to the mix. This evidence has, however, persuaded a number of companies, including the one above to implement a sickness absence data recording system. This will enable us to identify and target the causes of absence and have a further impact on decreasing the cost to the firm.

Instead of visiting their own GP, your employees will be able to see a doctor who is based on-site or nearby. This reduces the need to take time off and results in less disruption to the working day. These advantages can be easily illustrated:

On-site doctor case studies

Doctor case 1 – reduced productivity
A key revenue generator takes time off to see her local doctor, 30 miles from the office, resulting in a whole morning of non-productivity. She has to wait two days for the appointment, while soldiering on under par.

Doctor case 2 - upsetting team performance
A project team member takes an afternoon off to see his home doctor - upsetting the team's performance or even halting its work entirely.

Compare these scenarios with the 15-minute appointment time needed to consult an on-site Bupa doctor and you can appreciate the potential benefits of the service to both the company and its employees.

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