OPM debuts new health center at headquarters building

The Office of Personnel Management unveiled a new health center at its Washington headquarters on Thursday, and Obama administration officials said the facility could serve as a valuable model for other agencies.

"The most important part of this initiative is information," OPM Director John Berry said, shortly after taking a body mass index screening to promote the center's preventive health care services. The center will offer programs such as BMI and cholesterol screening, smoking cessation classes and vaccinations. It also will provide rooms for women who are breastfeeding or pumping breast milk.

The renovation of the old -- and according to Berry, subpar -- center cost OPM $300,000, removed asbestos and old tiling and brought in modern medical equipment. Berry said he decided to proceed with the renovation after complaints about its condition topped an employee survey about the agency.

In addition, employees of the General Services Administration and Interior Department will have access to the facility as part of efforts to build a model work-life balance campus for agency employees who work in Washington's Foggy Bottom neighborhood. While OPM funded the renovation, Berry said the agencies have agreed to share costs if OPM needs to hire more staff or expand the building's physical space. Interior already has volunteered to decorate the center to make it more welcoming, he said.

"It's exactly the kind of health facility we should be looking at," said Stephen Leeds, GSA's acting administrator. GSA is planning a major renovation of its headquarters beginning in 2011, and Leeds said replicating OPM's health center will be a priority. Just as GSA has served as a model for environmentally friendly building design, Leeds said he hopes federal work-life balance programs, including on-site health facilities, will set a strong example for private sector employers.

Berry said OPM is talking with OMB about other possible locations for federal work-life campuses, and he expects to announce new efforts soon. GSA currently is evaluating the food options at GSA-run facilities to expand appealing healthy choices, according to Leeds. And Berry said OPM would open a space for exercises classes, including Pilates, in the near future.

OPM officials plan to monitor how employees use the health center and to measure whether encouraging and facilitating healthy life-cycles have an effect on job productivity. "In six months, you can hold me accountable," for whether he's improved his BMI score, Berry joked.