Annual review finds high use and satisfaction at Waukesha employee health and wellness clinic

A consultant for the city's employee clinic told the Common Council on May 20 that the Lockshore Employee Health and Wellness Center saw high utilization and strong patient satisfaction in 2024 and into early 2025.

Erin Eason, National Director of Clinical Consulting at CBIZ, summarized the annual review and told council members the center — operated in partnership with Marathon Health — marked its 10th year of operations in 2024. Eason said the center recorded 713 unique personal-health patients from the city and 969 total patients when occupational-health visits are included. She said 84% of eligible city employees used the center in 2024 for personal health services (excluding biometric screening incentives), 53% of eligible spouses used it and 33% of eligible children used it.

Eason highlighted service lines: nearly 2,000 primary-care visits, more than 1,000 personal-health visits tied to physical therapy usage and substantial occupational-health visits (including post-offer exams and injury visits). Overall completed visits increased year over year to 3,861 when including health coaching; Eason noted that health-coaching staffing was eliminated in mid-2024 but that providers deliver coaching as clinically indicated.

Patient feedback was strongly positive, Eason said: 99% of survey respondents who completed post-visit surveys said they were likely or very likely to return; 99.9% said privacy and confidentiality were maintained; and short wait times were common, with about 74.5% reporting wait times of five minutes or less and about 95.5% reporting waits of 10 minutes or less. Eason read several anonymized comments from the clinic's free-text surveys praising providers by name.

Council members asked about the clinic's financial return on investment. Eason and city staff said the program used an ROI methodology in its first eight years; since then the advisory committee shifted to tracking trends rather than calculating a single ROI number because avoided costs can be consumed by other health-plan trends. Marathon Health's electronic health-record integration will allow the city to receive more detailed cost and utilization reports by engaged and non-engaged populations; officials expect a report in spring 2026 that will compare aggregate cost data for users versus nonusers while protecting individual privacy.

Alderperson Piper and others praised the clinic's convenience for employees with children and said they had heard positive feedback from staff who can often get same-day or next-day appointments. The presentation closed with staff saying they will continue to monitor utilization and satisfaction and return to the council with additional financial reporting when available.

No council vote was required for the presentation; the item was informational.