A Corporation’s Broad-Brush Approach to Meeting Changing Needs

The traditional goal of Continental Bank’s Medical Department—the delivery of occupational health care—was intended to minimize fringe benefit costs and provide medical care for employees and customers who were injured or became ill during working hours. The general rule was to hire healthy people and to ensure continuity of medical care insurance coverage if an illness did occur. There was little recognition or corporate commitment to programs that encouraged preventive medical techniques to ensure good health: the medical care system was primarily concerned with crisis invention.