Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 4, 1995                   TAG: 9507050092
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEWISTON, N.C.                                  LENGTH: Medium

COMPANIES BRING DOCTORS TO THEIR WORKERS

Being sick doesn't necessarily mean missing work at Perdue Farms' poultry processing plants in North Carolina.

Perdue, as have many corporations around the country, including Gillette Co. and Coors Brewing Co., has set up health clinics on its grounds to let employees get quick treatment.

And most of the companies that have invested in the centers say they have seen better quality work and less missed work from employees.

Jean Norfleet, who de-bones chicken at the Perdue plant, has used the clinic to check up on her asthma and a skin problem. Instead of taking off an entire day of work to deal with her ailments, she visits the center on the company clock for $5.

In June 1994, Perdue opened its first on-site health center at its Robersonville, N.C., plant. Since then, it has started clinics at two other North Carolina plants and plans on opening more around the country.

The decision to expand its employee health program came about four years ago after the company settled with the the state Department of Labor over repetitive motion injuries. Perdue saw it was time to improve employee health care programs. At one plant it invested $10 million to install machinery to do much of the routine work, and at another it established an ergonomics center to redesign operations and cut repetitive-motion injuries.

``They saw such a reduction in their workers comp payments that they learned quickly it was good business,'' said Mary Carol Lewis, who heads the Bureau of Health Compliance in the Labor Department.

With those lessons in hand, the company developed the health center concept. The venture has expanded into a full-service clinic, with specialty and family practice doctors available to patients throughout the day.

Physical therapy also is available and the Robersonville clinic has an in-house midwife. The company plans to add lab work, a night doctor and gynecological services.

``We were flooded'' when the clinic opened, said Joe McGoogan, manager of the Lewiston plant.. ``Our people are using it.''

The Lewiston center costs about $5.5 million a year to run, with a medical staff seeing about six or more people an hour. Dr. Roger Merrill, Perdue's corporate medical director, said the center does not cost the company any more than it was spending before on employee health benefits.

While the Center for Women's Economic Alternatives in Ahoskie, N.C., agrees that the clinic is an important step for the company, it says many patients are not given proper medical attention.

``We commend Perdue for the effort in trying because you have to start somewhere,'' said Liz Sessoms, director of the women's center. But, she said, some employees get just a brief examination and Tylenol, then are sent back to the production line.