Transformation Waco was ahead of the curve when it started planning its Telehealth for Schools service, and the growing comfort with medical services delivered by video chat has smoothed the process as children and their parents have started to make use of the option.
Telehealth for Schools launched in the fall and lets students have doctor’s visits from their school nurse’s office, with the goal of minimizing the amount of time students miss class for simple doctor’s visits. Transformation Waco, an in-district charter partnership managing five Waco Independent School District schools, started the planning process for the service two years ago.
“When we were doing research, we discovered that families would take students out of school to take them to doctor visits, and if they had a sibling they would take them out of school to attend their sibling’s doctor visit,” said Dana Carpenter, chief strategy officer for Transformation Waco. “So not only were we losing those students, but we were also losing their siblings.”
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Waco Family Medicine makes doctors available for the program, and students are able to return to class if allowed by the doctor right after the visit is over.
Carpenter said students who have used the program are comfortable as the pandemic has made it normal to have doctor’s appointments over a video call.
The school nurses have been trained and given a list of what providers would be able to address over the Zoom video call from headaches and stomach aches to pink eye and minor wounds, said Matthew Polk, chief operating officer at Waco Family Medicine.
In addition to getting students medical attention with minimal disruption to schoolwork, the program was created with parents’ time in mind, Carpenter said.
“It really helps create an opportunity for everybody to get what they need with the least disruption to their day,” she said.
Carpenter said parents are able to either come to the school nurse’s office to join the visit or simply participate from their own video feed, potentially from their jobs.
“One of the great things about telehealth services is that if a student needs a prescription, the provider can send that over to the pharmacy and then the parent can pick it up after work so that the student never has to leave school and the parent doesn’t have to leave work,” Carpenter said.
Lindsey Helton is not only the principal at Alta Vista Elementary School but she is also one of the parents who has benefited from the program. Her son, who attends Alta Vista, went to the nurse for a possible case of pink eye.
“It was a really busy day here at school so I was frantic about trying to take him to the doctor’s when the nurse reminded me about the telehealth program,” Helton said. “She set up the visit, which took like 10 minutes, and I got a prescription that I picked up after work.”
The program turned what could have been a long ordeal into about a 10-minute process, she said.
Carpenter said Transformation Waco has also extended Telehealth for Schools to include behavioral health, allowing students to receive mental health help, some on a weekly basis, without having to leave school.
While enrollment in the program is free and Transformation Waco does not pay Waco Family Medicine, telehealth appointments are subject to billing just like a regular doctor visit. Parents would either use insurance, Medicaid or use Waco Family Medicine’s sliding fee scale, which is based on income.
Carpenter said COVID-19’s disruptions likely slowed enrollment in the program, but parents will be able to enroll in Telehealth for Schools whey they register students for next school year. Students also can enroll in the program the same day they need a visit.
Telehealth is open for all students attending one of the five Transformation Waco schools: Alta Vista Elementary, Brook Avenue Elementary, J.H. Hines Elementary, G.W Carver Middle School, and Indian Spring Middle School.