STARKVILLE — The transition from summer to autumn brings with it a crop of illnesses in schools, from sinus infections to strep throat.
The number of students seeing school nurses triples at this time of year, and faculty come in as often as the students do sometimes, Overstreet Elementary School Nurse Paige Fremin said.
“It’s just hard to stay well with this many people in one building sharing everything,” she said.
A proposed on-site health clinic could make the season, and the school year in general, much easier for students, parents, faculty and staff in the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, both Fremin and district public information officer Nicole Thomas said.
The district is discussing a partnership with OCH Regional Medical Center for a nurse practitioner to provide medical treatment in a central location when students’ and employees’ needs go beyond what a school nurse can provide. School nurses can perform basic assessments and address immediate health needs but cannot diagnose a medical condition or prescribe medications.
OCH orthopedic surgeon Dr. William Smith has discussed the clinic with the SOCSD Board of Trustees twice, once in May and most recently on Oct. 8. The clinic will hopefully reduce students’ and teachers’ time away from the classroom and parents’ and guardians’ time outside work, Smith told trustees. He could not be reached for comment this week.
The biggest challenge will be getting each school community to accept and buy into the program, Smith told the board.
“With anything new, there has to be engagement and support,” he said. “Once people see the benefit of it, I think it will be a productive thing.”
Superintendent Eddie Peasant told The Dispatch he expressed an interest in the idea of a clinic like the one in the Gulfport School District, where he served as a middle school principal, earlier this year in conversation with Smith.
School funding depends partially on student attendance, and the district’s overall attendance rate has been between 91 and 92 percent for the past three academic years, according to data the district provided The Dispatch in September. The district’s goal is above 95 percent, and an increase of 1 to 2 percent translates to an increase of about $2 million in funding, Peasant said Wednesday.
Faster medical attention
Every school in the district has a nurse. Fremin is in her third year at Overstreet, was Armstrong Middle School’s nurse for three years previously and has also worked for Starkville Pediatrics.
When a student is not feeling well in the classroom and comes to see Fremin, she does a basic assessment that can include checking their temperature and throat.
“(I) rule out what I can rule out in my office with a thermometer and an otoscope, and if there’s anything that’s suspicious, I’ll call a parent and send them out if they’re running a fever or if their tonsils look bad,” Fremin said.
She might provide them with Tylenol for a headache or crackers if they have not eaten that day. If their condition is serious, she will recommend that the parents take the child to a doctor.
The changing of the season increases waiting room times at doctor’s offices significantly, Thomas said.
“You’re looking at normally at least half a day if you’re a walk-in patient, especially if you’re not walking in when the doors open,” she said.
The SOCSD clinic would not only be conveniently located but much less crowded and therefore reduce absenteeism for both students and teachers, Thomas said.
Parents can take their children to their regular physician instead if they so choose, but the clinic would be a good option not just for those who want to avoid long wait times, but also for those who do not have a physician they see regularly, Thomas said. Parents would still be responsible for taking their children to and from the clinic but would take less time off work to do so.
The clinic would also provide immunization booster shots for students in kindergarten and seventh grade. These students are not allowed to come to school before they get the shots, and wait times at clinics can keep them out of the classroom for two to three weeks, Fremin said.
Insurance would cover treatment costs “just like at any other clinic,” Peasant said, and the district will consider its options for children whose families do not have health insurance. Faculty might receive a decreased deductible, Smith said.
The district is still looking for a location for the clinic if it starts this year, but Peasant told the board las week it will likely be on the Armstrong campus if it starts next year.
Seeing a medical professional sooner will stop small health problems from becoming big ones, Fremin said.
“I think it’ll be a huge help to have that option to not sit in a waiting room for two-and-a-half to three hours to go in with a stomach bug, and then leave with the flu because you sat there for so long waiting to be seen,” she said.
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