Health Services for Government Employees

Abstract

I IF WERE asked to write a television spectacular to dramatize the subject of health services for government employees, I would start with two pictures, each to be flashed on the screen ahead of the story. In the first picture I would show a government officeworker opening his desk drawer. Hidden in the drawer are a few half-used bottles of patent medicines, an aspirin bottle, and a plastic container of a prescription medicine. Next to them are a few band-aids, a half-full iodine bottle, and a bottle of eyewash. You would watch this employee take a pill out of the bottle and hand it to a fellow worker. The second picture would take you into a well-equipped dispensary in a large government office building. A nurse is treating an employee who has a cut finger; another nurse is counseling a rather obese young stenographer; the medical secretary ushers a job applicant with a physical impairment from the waiting room to her desk, while another employee is leaving the physician's consultation room after a health maintenance examination. On the wall is the framed certificate of the Occupational Health Institute. The-se two pictures delineate our subject: health services provided for government employees. A natural question arises at this point: Are we practicing what we preach? Now we ha.ve to ask which of the two pictures reflects our own situation. The fairest reply to the question is, Not yet, but we try. In private industry, medical departments have for many years been an integral part of many companies with large employee populations; the picture is spottier regarding the small plants. But in government, be it the Federal, State, or the city-county level of metropolitan centers, the concept of employee health services is an innovation which is only slowly making headway. Before examining some of the problems which seem to hamper a rapid spread of employee health services over the Nation, you might find it of interest to take a bird's-eye view of the employee health service which I direct.