Grant brings health care to school $500,000 to open clinic at Hayward
A $500,000 federal grant will pay for a new community medical and dental clinic set to open in 2013 outside Hayward Elementary School. The clinic will be the sixth school-based health center in the Sioux Falls School District. Avera Health operates clinics at Washington High School, Whittier Middle School and Joe Foss alternative high school, while Falls Community Health runs clinics at Hawthorne and Terry Redlin elementary schools and will operate the Hayward clinic. |
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Health clinics in Sioux Falls schools, the year they opened, and who operates them:
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The centers are full primary care facilities, providing physical exams, immunizations and treatment of acute injuries and illnesses and chronic health conditions. Students who require medical attention first see their school nurses, who might refer them to a clinic; parents decide whether the child goes to a school-based clinic or to a private doctor's office.
The convenience of a school-based clinic keeps kids in school and their parents at work, those involved in the clinics say.
"We're able to see those children and return them right back to the classroom, if appropriate," assistant city health director Alicia Collura said.
The five health centers covered 1,753 office visits for medical needs and 560 dental visits during the 2009-10 school year, according to a school board report, which said attendance has improved at those schools.
"Children who are healthy and in school every day are able to learn and succeed," Superintendent Pam Homan said.
Officials seek out underserved and uninsured students for the school-based services. They chose Hayward as an expansion site because of its distance from existing clinics and the relatively high number of students from low-income and non-English-speaking families.
The school district began arranging on-site health care in 2008 when Falls Community Health opened a clinic for students inside Hawthorne.
Terry Redlin's clinic is different in that it has an entrance separate from the school building. Hayward's clinic will follow that same model. Collura said that allows the clinic to serve people with no connection to the school without giving those patients access to the school.
"That allows us to function as more of a community clinic," she said.
The Hayward facility is scheduled to be built by June 2013 and will include two exam rooms and two dental suites staffed by a part-time nurse practitioner, nurse, secretary, dentist, dental assistant and hygienist.
Construction and equipment for the Hayward clinic will be financed by one of 278 school-based health center grant awards totalling $95 million, which the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services announced last week. Community Health Center of the Black Hills was the only other South Dakota organization to be funded.
Reach Josh Verges at 331-2335.
