4 minute read
Healthcare
WELL WELL WELL
Life Sciences Component Growing at Park Central
As we explored in last April’s In Business Magazine cover story, “Our Bioscience Economy,” a life sciences boom is underway in Phoenix, making healthcare and bioscience among the fastestgrowing industries in the Greater Phoenix marketplace — and Park Central is at the heart of it, with plans for a new life sciences hub on site.
The project’s development team has created an exciting conceptual design for an 80,000-squarefoot life sciences facility in the project’s Burgbacher Building, the largest of the original buildings on site. The hub can be divisible into separate life sciences laboratories ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 square feet.
The new facility will have the capacity to accommodate 40 lab modules and 28 support lab modules. The efficient rectangle shape of the building will allow lab users maximum flexibility and the building boasts 6,000-amp service. High 16foot ceilings, ability for advanced air conditioning systems, and exhaust penetrations will enhance the experience for today’s life science companies.
Plaza Companies and Tucson’s Holualoa Companies have teamed up to redevelop Park Central into a vibrant destination, which once was the city’s first official large-scale shopping mall. The companies have transitioned the expansive space from a retail center to an almost 500,000-squarefoot bustling community hub ideal for playing, working, congregating and celebrating the arts.
Stan Shafer, chief operating officer of Holualoa Companies, believes the new life sciences hub will continue the extensive momentum experienced at Park Central the past few years.
“We are seeing central and downtown Phoenix emerge as one of the true life sciences hubs in the western United States,” says Sharon Harper, chairman and CEO of Plaza Companies. “This new life sciences hub will create synergies with the many healthcarerelated entities already at Park Central and nearby, and will be a tremendous opportunity for innovative companies to find an ideal location.” —Mike Hunter
Park Central parkcentralphoenix.com
Health and wellness have become the buzzwords in the workplace.
Employees are making their health and well-being a key area of focus, with 62% of respondents in a recent Paychex survey strongly agreeing or agreeing that employee well-being support and benefits are a top priority when applying for or considering a job.
Companies are taking note, too. Earlier this year, Harvard Business Review predicted that wellness would become the newest metric used to understand employees.
And a Gallup poll extolled the benefits of employee well-being: “When your employees’ well-being is thriving, your organization directly benefits,” Gallup proclaimed, in the form of fewer sick days, higher performance and lower rates of burnout and turnover.
The takeaway: When the well-being of a company’s workforce suffers, so does its bottom line.
But well-being isn’t limited to employees’ physical health. Mental and emotional wellbeing are priorities for companies and their team members, too. A survey conducted earlier this year by HR.com found that 57% of respondents ranked mental health in their organizations’ top five list of HR priorities. COVID-19 undoubtedly was a contributing factor, with a sharp rise in the number of Americans reporting depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions as a result of isolation, financial strain and the stress of losing a job during the past nearly three years.
Thankfully, there is a promising elixir to these health issues. It’s called integrated health care. And while it is not new, the concept is misunderstood or, in some cases, not embraced by healthcare providers and companies.
By definition, integrated care brings together multiple people — physicians, specialists, clinicians, pharmacists and others — who collaborate in the best interest of patients. At its core, it’s about treating the “whole” person, knowing that the mind and the body are inextricably linked. It’s also about addressing the issue at hand while uncovering the true source of a patient’s pain or discomfort.
Think about the newly diagnosed diabetic who is overwhelmed by the complexity of this new diagnosis triggering a mental health episode, or the individual whose depression or anxiety contributes to a chronic physical condition such as high blood pressure or heart disease.
While integrated care makes healthcare more accessible for patients, it also improves their health outcomes by treating the mind and body as one instead of in silos. Communities also reap the rewards of integrated care through Federally Qualified (community) Health Centers that ensure care for underserved and vulnerable populations regardless of their ability to pay.
Businesses stand to benefit from adopting an integrated model of care, too. After all, companies that foster a culture of well-being are sending a message to their workforce: We care about you. This can become a competitive advantage for retaining and recruiting employees in a fiercely competitive labor market.
Productivity also is a consideration. Employees who are healthy physically, mentally and emotionally are more effective, engaged and satisfied in their jobs. And they undoubtedly will be more committed to contributing to their companies’ missions and bottom lines.
Finally, there is the cost. In its 2021 study, Gallup reports that 75% of medical costs accrued are due to preventable conditions. There is also the cost of turnover and lost productivity — $322 billion globally due to employee burnout.
By integrating physical and mental health services, companies can realize cost savings for employees with acute or chronic conditions.
As a family medicine physician and chief medical officer of Terros Health, my goal is to help patients on a path to total well-being. For them and their employers, integrated care is a proven model for achieving this goal. —Dr. Vanna Campion, chief medical officer at Terros Health (www.terroshealth.org), a healthcare company focused on the whole person, providing primary care and specializing in mental health and substance use treatment for more than 50 years
