HEALTH CARE : FHP Adds Child Care to List of Benefits for Headquarters Workers

FHP executive Ria Carlson has found a new baby-sitter for her 2-year-old daughter, Alexandra: her employer.

On Monday, the health maintenance organization added its newest employee benefit--a company-subsidized child care center where FHP workers can leave their preschool kids while they head off to their jobs at the firm’s Fountain Valley headquarters.

So far so good, said Carlson, FHP’s director of public relations.

“It was really ideal,” said Carlson, who gave up her expensive live-in nanny in favor of the services of the newly established FHP Child Care Center, located in the old Fountain Valley library next to the city’s police station.

“I guess that makes it pretty safe,” she quipped.

With women making up more than 60% of FHP management, the FHP Child Care Center was considered a necessity, Carlson said. It became reality after more than a year of study renovating the former city library at a cost of $500,000.

Child care operator Bured & Assoc., which operates child care centers for Pacific Gas & Electric and Disneyland, was hired to run FHP’s center.

On its first day of operation, more than 50 children were enrolled, at costs ranging from $120 a week for infants to $90 a week for 3- to- 5-year-olds, Carlson said.

More importantly, Carlson said, the center’s social and educational environment contributes to improved child development through the use of educational games and interaction with other children, which often is unavailable at home under a nanny’s tutelage.

“I could see my daughter blossoming in just one day,” Carlson said, quickly adding: “Of course, she’s the smartest kid in the class.”