Washington will spend $12,480 on a city employees wellness clinic for six months.

The City Council authorized the expenditure during its Nov. 23 meeting.

The city spends about $1.3 million annually on medical expenses incurred by its employees.

In October 2014, the council authorized the city forming a partnership with Vidant Health to establish a free, drop-in wellness clinic at fire station No. 2 for four hours every other week. That clinic was used by about 32 percent of the city’s employees from October 2014 to June of this year. That low use was attributed to non-consistent hours, according to a city document.

The council decided that effective July 1, the city would offer the wellness clinic four hours every week instead of four hours every other week. The clinic was relocated to City Hall. Use of the clinic increased by 18 percent during the first three months of the new schedule.

The new arrangement and other changes have resulted in the city saving money, according to the document. The city requires physicals and screenings during the course of a city worker’s employment with the city. Those services have been added to the clinic. Fourteen of the 33 city firefighters/EMTs used the clinic for their physicals. Previously, they would have been away from work about two to three hours to complete their physicals in Greenville at a cost of about $180 per person. The clinic charged $30 a person and reduced the time away from work from about three hours a person to 30 minutes, according to the document. The savings came to about $2,500.

“Feedback from the employees who use this clinic has been overwhelmingly positive, and the City believes the clinic more than pays for itself,” reads a memorandum from Stacey Christini, the city’s director of human resources, to the mayor and council.