The Origin Story of an Occupational Health Clinic: From Idea to Reality
Occupational health clinics play a crucial role in the well-being of workers, offering a wide range of services to promote workplace safety and minimize occupational injuries and illnesses. Performance Occupational Health Services (POHS) offers CPR & First Aid training, injured worker care, drug and alcohol testing, pre-placement exams, annual exams, vaccines, respirator fit testing, DOT physicals, and more.
POHS began in 2017, opening its first clinic in Vancouver, Washington. POHS was able to expand to Longview, Washington soon after, and now has two thriving clinic locations.
Despite the challenges of operating during a pandemic, POHS was able to pivot its services and offer much-needed support to the community. The clinic had a two-year contract with a major health administration to travel throughout the state and fit test frontline caregivers for N95 respirators. The clinic's founder and owner, Charise Brenes, explained that her team was able to switch gears quickly and provide essential services to the public during a time of uncertainty.
Charise, who has over 30 years of experience in Occupational Medicine, has been the driving force behind the clinic's success. She grew up in Longview, attended Kelso High School, and is happy to be back in the area in a professional capacity and to be involved in the community. She began her career with PeaceHealth, where she worked in their Occupational Health division for ten years. After that, she helped manage and run another occupational clinic in Vancouver, which unexpectedly closed. Her husband encouraged her to build upon her occupational medicine foundation and try opening and running her own clinic. This led to the birth of Performance!
The clinic has since grown exponentially, with the staff building relationships based on trust and history (a lot of staff members have worked together previously in other related healthcare jobs.) Angie Brooks, our Director of Operations, has been working on and off with Charise for 12 years and has been instrumental in building the business. POHS now has ten employees at the Longview location and about 25 employees overall.
Charise's passion for occupational health is evident in her commitment to the community and her team's well-being. Her goal is to focus on client relations and continuing to forge connections in our community, while Angie has been stepping into a more hands-on role within the clinics. The clinic's mission is to continue providing first-rate occupational health services to the SW Washington area and help workers stay safe and healthy on the job.
Listen to this recent interview with Charise and Angie! They were invited to take part in the Your Chamber Commerce show on Bicoastal Media Longview KEDO’s radio station.
