A Letter From OnSite Health's CEO & Founder

Twenty years ago, I decided to leave the hospital organization I worked for as a contracted Occupational Health nurse. Why? Because I believed the most valuable way I could share my talents as a nurse was to offer healthcare in the workplace.

By offering nursing in workplaces around our community, I felt we could help to make bigger impacts on a person’s overall health. It made sense…where are people most of the day? At work! I believed in making healthcare more accessible by meeting a person where they “live,” thereby helping people become healthier.

Our CDO, Daryl Zernick, is quick to point out that nurses have consistently been rated as the most trusted profession in the United States for over two decades, according to Gallup’s annual honesty and ethics poll. Given this fact, building relationships with employees in their workplace should be easy, right?

• work on-site
• provide vital health screenings at cost
• be available to care for injuries and illnesses in the workplace
• be a resource for employees looking for a Dr. or needed consultation for mental health
• work with HR benefits reps to sort out issues with LTD, STD, FMLA, and WC cases
• hold flu shot clinics
• provide CPR and first aid training for ERT’s
• provide monthly health education topics and seminars
• provide OSHA mandated testing

…And the list goes on. The thought continued to cross my mind, “why would any employer want to wait until after a catastrophic injury or illness rather than be proactive and try to identify risk beforehand?”

With $247, I purchased a used fax/phone/printer machine (remember those?), a Chamber of Commerce contact list, mailing labels, envelopes, paper, and a business phone line (land of course). Then I went to work contacting as many companies as possible and asking for a meeting. Some groups took me up on it, met with me, liked what I had to say, but in the end turned me away saying things like, “the money isn’t in our budget, maybe next year.”

Thankfully, on the very day I decided no one was understanding my vision and it was time to hang up my idea and go back to the hospital, my phone rang. Not to add drama, but it quite literally rang AS I was reaching out for the phone to call and cancel my business line. At the end of the line was a company that a friend was helping get started. They were interested in providing CPR training, health education and screenings, and a nurse on site a few hours a week. Finally, someone understood! Hence, the start of a 20-year journey in occupational health and wellness for OnSite Health.

In the beginning it was me against the world! I was determined to make sure people received the best education and nursing care possible. Slowly but surely, we began to pick up more business, making it necessary to hire help and pull my husband away from his full-time job as a Producer at a local television station.

Somewhere around 2007/2008 one of our clients received a letter from the government saying they would need to prove they had a pandemic preparedness plan in place in preparation for the Avian flu. Our client had no idea how to respond, but losing a government contract was not an option for them, so they asked me what to do. I wasn’t sure, but I threw myself into learning everything I could about the Avian flu. I followed the CDC’s and WHO’s outlines for preparedness plans in the workplace. We held meetings with supervisors and staff, training them on how to respond in the event of a pandemic emergency. We made sure this client maintained their ability to provide parts to the government.

That experience impacted OnSite Health’s ability to help companies years later during the COVID crisis. It certainly proves the point that a company such as mine needs to stay on their toes and learn everything they can to help in any situation. We are proud to say we helped many companies stay open during the COVID crisis, keeping food on their employees’ tables and educating them on how to stay safe in a world of unknowns.

Through the years, we have grown nationally to provide workplace healthcare. But we still maintain our “mom and pop” values by providing trusted nursing care that keeps our communities healthy and working at an affordable cost. Years ago, I remember sitting across the table from a VP of Operations for a large company. He told me he “loved my passion” and had “no doubt I was a good nurse,” but “OnSite Health might be too mom and pop for our organization.”

I left the meeting after a handshake and a promise from the VP that he would let me know in the next 2 weeks. I went straight to my car and called my most trusted ally, my mom. I sat in the car venting out my frustration, saying I couldn’t understand why anyone would think we were “mom and pop.” I was, after all, wearing the most expensive “blue suit” I owned. I remember my mother saying, “Constance Marie, what’s wrong with mom and pop?”

It was at that moment my whole attitude changed! “Mom and Pop by definition simply means a “small family-owned business.” We were small and family-owned. So, by definition, he was right. It was the attitude behind the words that got to me. He said it as if it was a negative. But in my mind, who can you trust more than your family? Who gives you the best service? Who offers flexibility? Who will work harder for you than a Mom and Pop business?

I left the parking lot discussion with mom feeling reinvigorated and determined more than ever to spread the word about our business, helping as many people as we could! On the way home I got a call from the VP of Operations. He said, “when can you start?” I showed up to our planning meeting wearing the brightest yellow jacket I could find, determined to spread sunshine and good health to him and his officers.

It was one of our most successful contracts! OnSite Health took a group of 1600 employees, who were allowed to smoke at their workstations, and turned it into a non-smoking facility. The no-smoking policy became a catalyst for several employees to quit smoking. For those that struggled, we offered smoking cessation programs and worked with their insurance broker to reimburse for cessation aids. OnSite Health worked with what the employees referred to as the “roach coach,” food truck, to provide healthier options for breakfast and lunch. We also became a resource for several people fighting addiction problems, family problems, financial issues, and depression. OnSite Health served this company and their employees well, offering free health screenings and health coaching for those who were high risk. We knew we were effective when the same VP of Operations was showing a small group of investors around and stopped to introduce them all to “our nurse.”

You see, that’s what we want at OnSite Health! We want to be “your nurse.” We know you trust us with things you’d never share with anyone BUT a nurse. We know you want to be healthy and happy and sometimes you just don’t know HOW to be. We know you struggle outside of work with things you can’t share with people at work, and you need resources to help you through those struggles. We know your healthcare costs are the second highest expense for your company and it hurts your bottom line. We know vendors take advantage and charge high cost for training, medical supplies, and OSHA mandated testing. We know it’s difficult for you to take time off to get to your Dr’s office for annual lab tests.

We know all of this matters to you and your employees and it matters to us!

We are proudly transparent, and we don’t charge outrageous fees to provide these services to your company. Our cost for supplies is your cost. Our cost for labs is your cost. Our nurses WANT to work! So instead of farming out OSHA mandated testing, our nurses are trained to provide these tests. If you need or want to do something different, we are flexible and will meet you where you are and where you want to be.

Some of you may have recently heard talk about the cost of chronic disease and the increase in childhood diabetes. For the last 20 years, OnSite Health has been educating people about this illness. Not to “check a box,” but to truly help our clients so they and their children do not become part of those statistics. Having a nurse in your workplace, where your employees spend most of their day, is life-changing, and we hope you see the value in what we do.

The OnSite Health family has grown to now serve many companies across the country with staffed nurses and primary care clinics, but we still hold our “mom and pop” values dear. We promise to provide our clients with professional and trusted on-site healthcare services. We promise to do everything we can to help your company grow in good health and prosperity. We look forward to our meetings and building our healthy communities one employer at a time!

Warm regards,
Connie Bryan, CEO & Founder
OnSite Health

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