Posties: You’re Sick?!? Deal With It

…cuz the nurse is out–for good.

An internal Washington Post memo, obtained by FishbowlDC:

Health Center
Closing Announcement
To: All Post Employees

From: Peggy Schiff

After making several changes over the years to our NW Health Center, we
have concluded that continuing its operation is no longer viable in the
current business climate. We wanted to let employees know that we are
planning to close the NW Health Center effective January 1, 2009, and
explain how we plan to handle some of the Health Center’s functions after
that date.

As many of you know, the role of the NW Health Center has changed over the
years. Prior to 1999, the NW location housed a large production
facility–with presses and hundreds of production employees–justifying an
on-site Health Center to handle injuries during the production process.
Since NW production operations ended in 1999, The Post has incrementally
cut back on the NW Health Center’s operations, and we eliminated weekend
and evening hours in 2007. With the difficult business challenges facing
the newspaper today, it is increasingly difficult to justify the expense of
an on-site Health Center, particularly in the absence of production
operations here.

We plan to continue the NW Health Center’s operations through the end of
2008. After that time, The Post’s Security Department will handle
responses to medical emergencies–just as they do today during those hours
when the Health Center is closed.
In addition, we plan to continue some of the programs currently run through
the Health Center, such as onsite EAP counseling, ergonomics, flu shot
administration, and blood drives.

We appreciate your understanding as we make difficult decisions about our
non-core operations in this business environment. We also want to
recognize, and express our sincere gratitude for, the remarkable work that
Phyllis Waslo, our retiring Health Center Manager, and her outstanding team
of nursing professionals have performed over the years.

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