As a safety net health system, Dallas-based Parkland Health provides care to community members who are typically underserved and at high risk.

“To take care of them, we have to take care of ourselves,” said Ryan Alcantar, vice president of employee health and wellness at Parkland. Becker’s.

More than 30 percent of Parkland’s workforce lives in the same high-risk communities, facing similar disease burdens, social determinants of health and cancer risk to their patients, Mr. Alcantar said. And in 2019, Parkland identified a critical need to prioritize employee health and wellness.

Parkland’s three-tiered approach to employee wellness emphasizes a “whole-person” strategy that includes physical and mental health, financial health and workplace wellness, said Tawana McCullough, the health system’s senior director of shared services and benefits.

This focus has spurred the development of on-site medical services that provide ambulatory and advanced medical care for employees, including dental, optometry and women’s health services.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parkland recognized an increased need to address employee mental health. An anxiety screener using the 7-item generalized anxiety disorder scale at the on-site center showed that the mean score was significantly above the norm during that period.

“It told us right out of the gate that we have an anxious, overworked and burdened workforce and their overall well-being is compromised,” he said. This prompted Parkland to invest in an on-site psychologist, social workers and other support services.

To promote financial wellness, Parkland raised its minimum wage in 2024 and kept medical premiums flat for two years, Ms. McCullough said. Becker’s.

“Organizations have been talking about wellness for a long time,” Mr. Alcantar said. “The problem is that wellness has become a buzzword in the industry.”

He pointed out that health efforts often focus on exercise programs or workforce challenges that do not significantly affect overall well-being.

Achieving wellness among the workforce requires patience, he added.

“Be prepared for the long game. This is not something you will get an immediate return on investment in the traditional sense,” Mr. Alcantar said. “Understanding the total value statement and not just the dollar return in a particular area is really important.”