Access to fitness services remains a barrier for many American workers, especially in rural areas. Three years ago, Springdale-based Tyson Foods began providing health care to workers in several spaces where access to No. 1 care was limited.
Tyson said that in 2021, some of its workers were not using their fitness plan benefits due to convenient options. The first seven clinics were a pilot effort to see if a partnership strategy would help workers have a number one care option close to where they work.
Tyson partnered with Marathon Health in the spring of 2021 to open Bright Blue Health Centers in the communities where it operates in food processing. Green Forest, Arkansas, one of the first seven clinics to open. Other places were Newbern, Tennessee, Lexington, Nebraska, Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Center, Texas, Storm Lake, Iowa, and Garden City, Kansas.
Tyson said about 40,000 workers and their families need the Bright Blue fitness centers. Tyson Foods has also partnered with Premise Health to operate an additional facility near its Enid, Oklahoma, facility, bringing the total to eight.
Marathon employs and manages clinics that provide preventive and acute care, physical fitness screenings, lifestyle counseling, physical education, behavioral fitness counseling, and lab work. Kyle Lambs is the Tyson Foods Case Manager at Marathon Health and said he signed on 3 years ago to manage and oversee this partnership.
He said Tyson is a self-insured company, and through its partnership with Marathon, it will pay for the number one care provided at the clinic through physician assistants, nurses, physician assistants, dietitians and behavioral fitness professionals. He said medical professionals don’t waste time filing claims like classic clinics do and have more time to spend with patients.
To use the clinic facilities, for which there is no co-pay, Tyson workers will be required to use the company’s fitness insurance program. Clinic visits increased to 25,090 last year, up 23% from 2022. Tyson also reports that worker satisfaction rates exceeded 97% for those who were happy or very happy. Short wait times and on-site translation facilities in 39 other languages are the most common reasons why workers said they love and use Bright Blue clinics.
Sara Grigg lives on a farm near Green Forest and worked for Tyson Foods as a nurse manager for five years until 2021. He worked at the factory attending to emergencies and work-related injuries and illnesses. She said Tyson supported her in earning the complex nursing degree she earned in 2021. Grigg left Tyson to gain clinical experience, but returned and is now one of two complex nurse practitioners in a small 8-person organization at the Green Forest clinic.
“Now that I’m with Marathon at the Bright Blue Health Center in Green Forest, it’s come full circle for me. I love my job of serving the staff at the local Tyson plant and their families,” Grigg said. “Many of My patients walk to the clinic from their homes or from the factory across the street. We have a giant population of Burmese from Myanmar (Burma) in the factory and on the network and many don’t drive. We also offer translation services and over time, they have learned to accept as truth with us.
Grigg said the clinic strives to see patients around their work schedules, and because they’re close to the plant, it’s convenient to walk there and then return to their jobs.
Jason Murray worked for Tyson Foods in Green Forest for 27 years. He grew up in the domain and began his career as a bird hunter on the live bird shipping team. He worked hanging birds for slaughter and then drove a live bird shipping truck. For the past several years, Murray has been a welder and has maintained the bird cages used by the live animal shipping team.
Murray, 54, underwent gallbladder surgery but still had conditions that a top-notch doctor might not fix. Murray went to the Bright Blue Health Clinic and met with Grigg. He examined her thyroid and found that she was overactive and guilty for some of her symptoms. Murray said he had answers and didn’t charge him a dime.
“You just walk into the clinic and tell them your name, they review your case and can see you in about five minutes or less. ” They also don’t herd you like farm animals, but they take their time with you and I love that they can see me at 5:30 right after painting, which means I don’t have to leave,” Murray said.
Grigg said the clinic strives to see patients around their work schedules, and because they are so close to the plant, it is convenient to walk there and then temporarily return to their jobs.
A series of articles published in late 2022 through the Pulitzer Center will offer a critical look at Tyson’s efforts to provide health care.
“Tyson Foods’ signature style now strategically directs injured personnel to the company’s nurses and clinics, a procedure that some say short-circuits injury reports to OSHA, limits scrutiny, and makes it difficult for injured personnel to receive medical care, personnel compensation and damages for life-changing reasons Injuries,” the article notes.
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