Amazon is launching 20healthcare clinics in five US cities as part of a pilot program for warehouseworkers and their families.- The first is now open in Dallas-Fort Worth, and the rest will roll out in Phoenix, Louisville, Detroit, and California's San Bernardino-Moreno Valley area in the few months, according to the company.
- The clinics were in the works before the pandemic and will not offer testing or care related to COVID-19, a company spokesperson told Business Insider.
Amazon is rolling out 20 healthcare clinics for the company's warehouse workers and their families in five US cities, according to a blog post published Tuesday.
As CNBC reports, the clinics' services will include preventive primary care, prescription medications, and vaccinations. They will be operated by Crossover Health, a startup that has run onsite clinics for the likes of Apple, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
The company announced that the pilot program will launch its first clinic in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, where more than 20,000
The program has been in the works since before the pandemic, a company spokesperson told Business Insider. The clinics will not offer testing or care related to the coronavirus disease.
If the clinics — which will be situated close to fulfillment centers and operations facilities — are successful, the company will look into a wider rollout in 2021.
The new program comes after the e-commerce giant last October launched a pilot program called Amazon Care, which included video and text visits with clinicians, as well as in-home care, for employees in Seattle.
Employees have called Amazon's warehouses a "breeding ground" for the coronavirus disease as social distancing proves difficult in such environments, according to a Business Insider report in April. The employees also said that Amazon was not doing enough to help prevent COVID-19 from infecting them and the communities they serve.
In early June, CNBC reported the company was aiming to test the majority of its warehouse workers for the disease every other week. Amazon has said it expects to spend $1 billion in employee testing in 2020.