When employees at Centennial Medical Center (CMC) in Nashville, Tenn., requested that the hospital offer on-demand sick child care services, CMC took the recommendation to heart.
This month, CMC became the first hospital in the state to provide its 2,000 employees a benefit that allows employees to take their mildly sick children to a Get Well Center, a medically supervised child care facility.
This is an exciting program for offering employees peace of mind, boosting their loyalty and reducing absenteeism. Working parents of sick children may miss as many as 29 work days annually as a result of their children's illnesses, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The hospital decided to provide this employee benefit following a recommendation from a CMC employee activity committee. They researched the benefit, made a site visit to the center and asked the administration to consider offering it, says Larry Kloess, CMC's president.
The center has professionals who are trained and licensed to care for children with mild illnesses like colds, flu or fever.
(CMC, Jerry Flowers, 615/342-1903)