County schedules employee health-clinic open house, starts weekly commissioner office hours

Christian County officials announced an open house and ribbon cutting for the county’s employee health clinic next Wednesday and said the commission will begin regular weekly office hours to improve public access. Human-resources staff and commissioners asked elected officials and employees to attend the clinic open house, scheduled for 8 a.m. to noon with a noon ribbon cutting. Chief commissioners said the county has already used the clinic for employee care and that leadership expects the clinic to reduce employees’ health-care costs and help manage chronic conditions. Commissioners also said they will begin holding regular commission office hours on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon, starting the week after the meeting. The sessions are intended for public information, informal discussion and for commissioners to review agenda items ahead of regular meetings; commissioners emphasized that no votes or formal decisions will occur during the office hours in order to comply with Missouri open-meetings laws. One commissioner said the county should verify whether the clinic is the first employee clinic in the state before making that claim; staff said they would research that point. Officials also encouraged employees to patronize a food truck on site that offered a 25% discount for county employees that day. Why it matters: county leaders described the employee clinic as a potential tool to improve employee health and lower the county’s insurance costs and said regular office hours are designed to improve public access to commissioners and to allow more informed discussion at formal meetings.