Tomah Memorial Occupational Health Clinic to open Oct. 30

Officials at Tomah Memorial Hospital are set to open its new Occupational Health & Wellness Clinic in Tomah’s Industrial Park Oct. 30.

Hospital clinic operations director Kyle Berra said construction of the 3,400 sq. ft. facility at 1401 Townline Road was pushed back a few weeks to accommodate final details of the building and the roll out of the new Epic electronic medical record system which went live at Tomah Memorial Oct. 1.

Officials broke ground for the new facility in March.

“One of the big requests we received from the local businesses is that they would like a site closer to them,” hospital clinic operations director Kyle Berra said of the new facility. “We felt that by moving into the industrial park we would be right around the corner or across the street from many of our largest employers in the Tomah or Monroe County area,” said Berra.

Occupational Health services were provided in various offices at Tomah Memorial Hospital.

Berra said the new facility will offer more space for the department. “The clinic will not be open to the general public, but will specialize in work-related services, whether that be a work related injury or a pre-employment type of a need.” He said health services include; rehabilitation services like prework screens, evaluations and conditioning, drug collections and testing, physical exams, testing and vaccinations, plus health, wellness and education services at the clinic and on-site at the business or industry.

“I think businesses are always facing more scrutiny from regulatory agencies to cut down on work-related injuries, said Berra. “The businesses are really making an effort to hire the right people for the job, those who are healthy enough to do the job and for those that are unfortunate enough to be injured on the job they want them to get back to full work as safely as possible.”

Berra said the clinic will accommodate walk-in patients, for drug screenings, but the majority of patient visits will be by appointment through the employee’s business or local health care provider. He said TMH Occupational Health & Wellness currently offers services to about 100 area businesses and industries.

The one story, $500,000 facility includes patient examination rooms, a rehabilitation area, audiology room, radiology facility and staff working space.

Berra said the facility would include a staff of seven, including a nurse practitioner, registered nurse, a medical assistant, a drug collection specialist, imaging technician, patient access representative and community outreach assistant. He said additional employees could be added as business volume dictates.

“I think it’s going to be a huge advantage for area businesses in terms of work productivity,” family nurse practitioner LuAnn Fowler, A.P.N.P., said of the new facility.

Fowler, who specializes in occupational health and wellness, said staff is specially trained in occupational medicine and understands what it takes to get injured employees back to work. “We’ll be helping area employers meet their needs and the regulatory requirements that they have to comply with in order to have a healthy workforce.”

The clinic will be open Monday – Friday from 7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

“The relationship that we have built with local businesses and industries has been growing for the past 25 years, and we are all very excited to be able to get to this next phase of services for our customers,” added Fowler.