Health groups’ array of medical services supports both personnel and mission

Occupational Health Services staff at both CNS sites perform a wide array of services to support employees’ physical and emotional health.

Occupational Health Services employees may not typically be viewed as “front-line workers” for Pantex’s mission, the people who are part of this team embody the site’s purpose just as much as the protective force or technicians working the line. They’re part of a team that has served Pantexans for decades.

“Pantex is now the longest-running accredited clinic in [Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care] in the history of DOE facilities being audited,” Morris noted.

Having cared for employees’ health since the 1970s, employees might be surprised at the incredible range of services today’s clinic provides. They perform hundreds of physicals each month, on top of on-the-job injuries, job-transfer physicals, and hew-hire physicals. Morris regularly meets with Human Resources staff to project the number of those pre-employment physicals so his team can appropriately staff to address the demand.

“We have been able to give HR eight empty slots per day,” he said. “We fill the rest with reschedules, follow-up appointments, etc. On any given Monday, we could have 50 [return-to-work approvals],” Morris said. “Our case managers are really good at triaging those and flowing them to the providers. We get lots of calls with people asking, ‘I’ve got a headache. Do you have ibuprofen?’ And, we do –– we’ll take care of those things.”

Morris compared OHS to an urgent-care facility in town, stating that people may come in and say things like, “I’m having chest pains. Can you check me out?”

Such instances call for urgent action.

“About once a month, we will see somebody in [atrial fibrillation] or having a heart attack, and we’ll send them to the emergency room,” Morris said.

Not every request, though, is predictable.

“We got a phone call last week: ‘Do you guys do pregnancy tests?’” Morris recalled.

The answer?

“We never have before, but we will if the person needs a medication or medical test that may interfere with, or be a risk to a pregnancy.”

Luckily for Pantexans, challenges don’t intimidate OHS clinic staff.

“Professionally, [the benefit of the clinic is] the urgent-care aspect,” Morris said. “If you have a stuffy nose, you don’t have to suffer through it, and don’t have to go home and take