LAS VEGAS (AP) - A casino company in the Las Vegas area has opened in-house medical clinics at two suburban properties to provide routine medical care to employees, including testing for the coronavirus.
Station Casinos Chief Operating Officer Bob Finch told the Las Vegas Sun that the clinics can make it easier for employees and their families to see a doctor, while making the company attractive to new hires.
“In this town, it can be hard to get a doctor appointment,” Finch said. “At the end of the day, if you go home and everybody’s good, your life is good.”
The two 2,500-square-foot medical clinics opened last week at Red Rock Resort in northwest Las Vegas and Sunset Station in Henderson. The company declined to say what they cost.
Each facility has a doctor, nurse practitioner and four exam rooms. Visits are free to Station Casinos employees and immediate family members meeting income criteria. The idea is to handle routine medical care such as blood work, flu shots, pharmaceutical services and COVID-19 testing.
“A large portion of our team members, for one reason or another, have to get bloodwork done every week,” Finch said. “They’ll be able to come here now and do that instead of waiting at other places around town.”
Offerings in the future might include dental, vision and physical therapy, he said.
“I think it will be a lot easier,” Red Rock valet driver and longtime company employee Jean Michel Dierick told the Sun. He said he planned to visit the clinic at Red Rock.
“You’re not going to have to wait for two or three hours for your appointment,” Dierick said. “This shows that the company really wants to take care of us.”
Station operates 10 properties in southern Nevada, including four that are closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic was not the reason Station began planning a year ago to open the clinics, said Finch, who started working for Station as a craps dealer in 1983 and was 21 when he met Station Casinos founder Frank Fertitta Jr.
Fertitta’s sons, company chiefs Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta, asked Finch when he was hired as COO a couple of years ago to return the company to roots as a family organization.
“We’re a family company and we take care of our team members like family,” Finch said.
Earlier this year, Station rolled out a cost-free health care plan to employees earning less than $41,600 a year and eliminated its HMO deductible for all employees.
Before COVID-19, unemployment was low in many places in the U.S., and companies were competing for workers. The pandemic changed the employment landscape, but Finch says he knows attracting talent will be important again.
“When a person is out there looking for work, when you see a company that builds a medical center, that shows we care,” he said.
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