By Madeleine Dumais, Social Media and Distribution Editor
Recently, the school board has begun discussing the proposition introduced by Neighborcare to place a health clinic in the high school. Neighborcare has previously established 12 in-school health clinics within Seattle — three of which are in high schools.
“All of our current school-based health centers are in several elementary, middle and high schools in the Seattle Public Schools,” Mary Schilder, the Director of Marketing Communications at Neighborcare, said. “King County is the leader in school-based health centers in the state.”
The thought is that students will be able to visit the clinic located in a classroom or portable. The clinic would operate similarly to that of a typical medical clinic.
“Our school-based health centers do not replace the school nurse. Our providers and staff work closely with the school nurse, teachers, administration, school counselors and students,” Schilder said.
Students would have access to the clinic before, during and after school. The clinic’s purpose would be to make life easier for as many students as possible and to give them easy accessible and reliable health care.
“At every one of our school-based health centers, our purpose is to help students do better in school by working to solve medical, dental and mental health problems, prevent serious illness and promote healthy lifestyles,” Schilder said.
The school district’s hope for this clinic is that it would make receiving health care easier in terms of payment and accessibility.
“Patients whose families have insurance or means would be billed. Others would be treated free,” Dan Chasan, a school board member, said.
This means that financially unstable students, often turned away from other health facilities, would always have access to the clinic.
Access to this clinic would not be difficult, seeing as it would be on the campus. Students could visit during the day or before and after school. In order to use the clinic at the high school, all students would need to register with Neighborcare beforehand. This process would include a registration form with parent or guardian signatures.
At Chief Sealth High School, students who are 18 and above would be allowed to sign their own forms. This might also be a possibility here on the island.
In putting these clinics into high schools, Neighborcare has seen support increase throughout their communities.
“In our 2015-2016 school year surveys of our middle and high school students, we received an overall grade of A-minus,” Schilder said.
Currently, the school board has approved a letter to be sent out by Superintendent Michael Soltman requesting a government grant to fund the creation and implementation of the clinic. If this is successful, the school board won’t have to spend any of its own funds to open the clinic.
Implementing this clinic within the high school will help the community and students. It will also give students without access to health insurance an easy way to find health care within their existing environment.