On the Beat 3/17/20

Troy talks to Elizabeth Casano and Ray Hightower from Allegro Plaza.

That and more still to come on midday.

Troy: welcome to on the beat everyone, i'm troy thompson.

Joining me in the studio today is elizabeth casano, marketing director, and of course ray hightower from allegro plaza.

And of course he's the manager over there, welcome to the show.

I have the big wigs in.

E.

Casano: that's right.

Troy: going to be telling me what's going on.

Okay.

Now of course you guys just, at allegro family clinic, you did start off in new hope, correct?

E.

Casano: right, that's correct.

Troy: but why did you decide to move to columbus?

E.

Casano: well, a little bit of history for those of us that may not know, but joe and betty gillis, they have always had such a humanitarian mind for this community, and they've always had a vision, for decades, in both mississippi and alabama, for seeing property and buildings for what they could be, not what they currently are.

And the plaza was one of those eyesores, i guess you could say, in our town, and- troy: i have been told that.

E.

Casano: yeah.

And mr. joe literally had a vision of what it could be, and what we see now is literally what he thought of.

I mean, all the way from even how the drive-through for the pharmacy is.

That's all mr. joe.

Troy: all right.

And we're looking at before and after images now.

It must be a great feeling to see how it went from an eyesore, into now, which is what is a destination.

E.

Casano: yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Troy: and how long ago was that, now?

E.

Casano: in 2016 they started servicing there.

So it's not anything relatively new, but... troy: it still feels new.

E.

Casano: yeah.

I mean, it's brand new, it's beautiful.

Troy: yeah, i got you.

All right, well let's jump over to you, ray.

And let's talk a little bit about some of the services that allegro plaza offers.

R.

Hightower: well, we are a full service family practice.

We can take care of anything from a sprained ankle, pneumonia, a high blood pressure.

You name it, we can do it.

We do a lot of sports physicals, for people in school, athletics, things like that.

We're really big on wellness.

Troy: okay.

R.

Hightower: annual wellness exams are so important.

Preventive medicine is really important.

If we can catch it quick, we can treat it.

Troy: well i would assume you're crazy busy, come january, february.

March.

E.

Casano: yes.

R.

Hightower: flu season is our busy time.

Troy: let's talk a little bit about occupational health.

Because we were talking about it in break, and it was something that was quite interesting for me to understand.

Do you want to talk a little bit?

R.

Hightower: well, occupational health bly is just what it sounds like.

We help keep your workforce healthy.

We can take care of anything from your pre- employment drug screens, alcohol testing.

You need pre-hire physicals, we want to make sure you're prepared for whatever job you're applying for, so we're going to run you through some screening and some testing and make sure you're a good fit for that position.

Work place injuries.

We do a lot with worker's comps.

We make it as easy as we can for the employers.

We do your paperwork, your filing, give your employee the best possible care that he can get, or she can get, and then put them back to work as quickly as we safely can.

Troy: and this is what we're saying.

Because this is something i've found really interesting is that these local businesses out there that maybe are taking care of their staff, and their employees with their healthcare services, but you can go as a group- e.

Casano: that's right.

Troy: into allegro.

Let's talk