When it comes to healthcare benefits, HR leaders are pulled in every direction: rising costs, limited options, employee turnover, and executives asking for impact with fewer resources.
But what happens when an HR leader makes a bold, confident move outside the traditional system?
John Barnes, a seasoned HR executive from the tissue and blood donation sector, didn’t just evaluate Direct Med Clinic on paper—he put it into practice. What followed was a transformation in employee morale, access to care, and financial sustainability.
In this 14-minute video interview, Barnes shares:
- Why culture—not cost—was the real tipping point
- What HR leaders often miss when comparing healthcare options
- How DMC’s approach made things easier, not harder
- What surprised him most about staff feedback
Watch the full video interview here: https://youtu.be/OtGNQvIAtPM?si=m8R4Czl-wMnJp5RD
“Just because it looks like it’s a huge endeavor doesn’t mean it is. The payoff is big.” – John Barnes
This isn’t just another HR soundbite—it’s a look behind the scenes of real leadership decision-making.
If you’re an HR professional, ask yourself:
- Do your current benefits actually make it easier for your employees to stay well?
- Are your people experiencing care that helps them meet goals, not just manage symptoms?
- Is your clinic standing up for your team like a partner—not just a provider?
DMC isn’t a cost center—it’s a strategic advantage. This interview is your front-row seat.
📺 Prefer to see it in action? Rewatch the full video here:
Recommended For:
- HR Professionals seeking smarter benefit strategies
- Business owners or CFOs evaluating employer healthcare options
- Anyone curious about Direct Primary Care from a leadership lens
For questions or inquiries, contact us: 210-886-8031
Transcript provided below:
John Barnes and Direct Med Clinic
Introduction and Career Background
My name is John Barnes. I’ve been an HR professional and executive for 41 years. I recently retired from BioBridge Global and then now semi-retired, working with a consulting group called Whirling Associates here in San Antonio after 41 years of experience. It’s been a joy working with organizations.
BioBridge Global is a wonderful organization, exceptionally well led, and I was privileged and honored to work there for eight years as we made lots of huge advances in the care of our employees and the services that we provide to San Antonio. I. Surrounding communities and far beyond that with the work that we did through the three subsidiaries of BioBridge Global, positively affecting the health of people throughout the world.
Role and Responsibilities at BioBridge Global
At the time, [00:01:00] direct Med was slick, and I was the vice President of Human Resources and learning for BioBridge Global, and my responsibility was really very vast. I had responsibility for all the, the people parts, if you will, not the management of the people, but everything else. Most certainly the health of the employees was of significant concern.
So my role, it had expanded over the period of time that I was there. I was there for eight years. I had a significant interest in the care of our employees and eventually their families. Through the clinic itself, but initially it was designed for the employees themselves.
Establishing Trust and Culture
Bridges Global was looking for a clinic that was able to gain the trust of our employees. The emphasis on the culture of the organization was exceptionally strong. We needed to make sure that our employees trusted the leadership of the organization itself. So [00:02:00] we initially. When we began thinking about a clinic, we were looking for a clinic that was able to work hand in hand with the leadership of BioBridge Global, and at the same time gain the trust of the employees.
And so we ensured that the distance between the clinic itself, the operations of the clinic and the leadership of the organization, specifically in HR, was entirely separate. We wanted to make sure that the employees knew that we as. HR professionals and leadership of the organization knew absolutely nothing about the, uh, visits to the clinic, the employee’s health, and all those ancillary sorts of things, because if there was any hint that there was some communication between the clinic and specifically the HR group, then we knew that the trust of the employees would be significantly damaged.
So we were looking for a cultural fit. We care deeply about the employees and we wanted to make sure the clinic shared that same sort of concern for BioBridge [00:03:00] global employees.
I look back on the decisions that we made. I. Over a period of time to bring on board a clinic for us, it was a bit of an experiment, a little bit of a risk, because the employee group in San Antonio was around 550 employees. We, at the time had almost 700 employees scattered throughout San Antonio and De Braunfels and Atlanta, Georgia, where we had a large laboratory operation.
Choosing the Right Clinic Provider
So when we began to look at a. Clinic. We took a look at three relatively good sized providers, one of which was quite large, the competition between the clinic operations. While they didn’t see it, we certainly did at the HR and leadership level, and so we had a decision to make a tough one to make with respect to the clinic providers themselves.
What we ultimately found was that the clinic providers varied [00:04:00] significantly in a number of different ways, certainly through. The people themselves, and I’ll get back to that. But in addition to that, there was differences in the reporting capabilities that the clinics provided. We at Bowbridge Global were very interested in the cost overall of the clinic operation and how that was able to work closely with the cost of our healthcare.
So when it boiled all the way down, the most significant, I think, offset, if you will, was the people at Direct met all of the operations that we looked at, had very good people. But at Direct Med it was a little bit different in that they had significant experience. Deborah and Dr. Roger offered a lot of experience in the healthcare field, and that was extremely appealing for us.
So it was the people, when you boil it all down, that really made the difference. Deborah’s experience in the healthcare industry as an administrator was very important to us because as HR professionals who were tasked with actually running the [00:05:00] clinic from a BioBridge global. Perspective. We didn’t know enough about that.
In fact, we knew very little about operating a clinic. So the expertise rested with Deborah and with Dr. Roger, and eventually with Dr. Bob, who was hired to staff the clinic, and all of them worked in concert very closely with leadership and with the leadership in the HR group itself. I had responsibility for that at the time.
So, uh, it all worked very, very well. It meshed well. The folks that ran the clinic, Dr. Bob worked very closely and very well. With us in the HR group and formed a very close relationship with the employees, which was of utmost importance. Again, it’s the people that made the difference.
Importance of People-Centric Culture
At Bob Bridge Global, we were very focused on the culture of the organization, and so sometime before that couple of years or so, before we. Brought on the clinic. We engaged an organization out of Houston called [00:06:00] Culture Plus to help us understand the importance of culture within an organization. We learned a tremendous oun from that experience, and the focus on culture grew even more intense than it had previously.
So as a result, we were looking for a. Clinic that was able to work hand in hand with us in our endeavor to improve, actually, not necessarily improve, but to enhance the culture of the organization. And so it’s all about, again, the people when it comes down to that sort of relationship. The endeavor was to enhance the culture and continue to build the trust.
And so we needed a clinic operation that was able to mirror our specific requirements with regard to enhancing the culture. And we found that in direct med clinic, we found that in Dr. Roger in. Deborah and then Dr. Bob. Very important for us. It worked out very, very nicely and the employees responded very enthusiastically to the DAF that worked with the clinic itself.[00:07:00]
Implementation and Success of the Clinic
As we begin to look at the culture of Bowbridge Global and work to enhance that culture with Culture Plus, we recognized that one of the things we needed to focus on was ensuring that we had a. People-centric culture. And so when we identified the need for a clinic, which again was a little bit risky given the size of the organization, but we wanted to make sure that the clinic operators themselves shared in that particular enthusiastic perspective of the employees themselves.
And so when we. Began analyzing the number of clinic operators in the area. We looked at three specifically, and we wanted to see whether the approach that they took was the same approach that we took, which was people-centric. And we found that in direct med, it wasn’t anything real specific. They didn’t come out and say We are people specific or people-centric or whatever.
It was just how the, the operators, Dr. Bob eventually, Dr. Rogers certainly and Deb came across, and that they [00:08:00] understood our need to ensure that we had a people-centric culture and that the employees fully trusted us as the leadership of the organization and of course the clinic operators themselves.
And so that culture, while it’s. Difficult to put a finger on it. It was a feeling that the operators that Dr. Roger and Deb, and then eventually Dr. Bob shared in that same perspective, that the people-centric culture was of utmost importance. When Dr. Bob was hired by Dr. Roger and by Deb, it was very clear that Dr.
Bob was very interested in the. Organizations culture and fit right in as if he was employed, which he’s not. By BioBridge Global. He was able to gain the trust just as we had hoped of the employees and the a number of employees that went to the clinic as opposed to going to a emergency room or urgent care center is reflective of that trust and the culture that was built around that.
And so it worked [00:09:00] out extremely well. The overall financial impact while yet to be absolutely identified has been by now. Sure, but it wasn’t, at the time that I retired from the organization was significant and was apparent, and so there were several advantages with respect to not just culture, but also the financial capabilities of the clinic in enhancing our healthcare and reducing healthcare spend at Bobridge Global.
While it was a experiment, it has worked out very, very well.
When the decision was tossed about as to whether to open a clinic at Bob Ritz Global, we looked at several different sorts of options, a near site. Clinic or shared clinic, but we had a lot of interest in an onsite clinic. And again, it was a little bit of a risk doing that because relatively small in size compared to very large organizations that have an [00:10:00] onsite clinic.
So in hr, as the lead in hr, I knew that it. Again, it was a bit of a risk financially. It was a bit of a risk with respect to whether employees would fully trust the operations of the clinic and the leadership of the organization. And so the key to that from an HR professional’s perspective. Is to be open to change and to be able to sell the idea to other leaders within the organization at the very top was a relatively easy sale.
The CEO and I and our CFO at the time absolutely agreed that it was the right thing to do. Down below that, while it wasn’t a very difficult sell job, it was a endeavor to make sure that the C level and the management level fully understood the advantages of opening an onsite clinic for us in HR who served as the primary coordinators of the clinic, including designing the clinic itself.
It was a lot of work, but it [00:11:00] certainly paid off. And will continue to pay off over time.
Advice for HR Professionals
So my advice to HR professionals is keep an open mind, recognize the benefits go far beyond the financial benefits. They really benefit the culture itself. It is some work, it’s not significant. The folks at DMC made it simple for us in that we were able to work hand in hand with them in getting the equipment that’s needed for the clinic itself, and then making sure that the employees were fully aware of the clinic.
So we had to. Engage in a tremendous amount of communication with the employee workforce itself, and to make it a little bit more complex given the operation that we have in Atlanta, Georgia. We had to work very closely with DMC to make sure that they were able to identify physicians in the area that our laboratory is located at to provide the same benefit to the employees in Atlanta that we have for the employees in San Antonio and surrounding areas.
They worked. [00:12:00] The folks at DMC, Dr. Roger worked very, very closely with us to make sure that it happened to the extent that in Atlanta, they actually brought the physicians in to speak with the employees, and there were, there was more than one, so employees had an option as to which physicians to see. And the reports that we had coming back from our Atlanta team were every bit as positive as the reports that we had coming back from our employees in the San Antonio area.
Again, the relationship that we have as HR professionals, as the HR group between us and the folks at DMC, Dr. Roger and Deb, and eventually Dr. Bob was extremely well done. We worked very closely with them and enjoyed the work with them, and there were times when we had some difficult situations with employees.
Uh, the health of the employees and we worked closely with them to make sure that the care that they were receiving was of utmost importance. Lots of projects were engaged in and completed, and, uh, the [00:13:00] results were just outstanding. So my advice to HR professionals is don’t close your mind. Just because it looks like it’s a huge endeavor.
There are advantages to it all the way around. And as we go through time looking at the healthcare situation, getting off the path of, that’s the way we’ve always done it, is a good approach. We’ve had tremendous success in taking that approach strategically and working with DMC has been exceptionally rewarding.
Got questions? Contact us: 210-886-8031
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