| Photo by Jocelyn King | Leah Stout, left, director of special education for Ohio County Schools, talks about the district’s proposed collaboration with WVU Medicine-Wheeling Hospital to provide a clinic at Madison Elementary School. While talking about the proposed memorandum, Doug Harrison, the hospital’s president and CEO, sits back and waits for an answer. question. The memorandum was approved at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
WHEELING – Ohio State Board of Education members Tuesday night approved a memorandum of understanding with WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital to initially open a clinic at Madison Elementary School.
It then approved a policy that governs medical and dental care for students there. The Madison School already has a dental clinic.
Both bills passed on a 4-1 vote, with board member Molly Aderholt voting against. Board Chairman David Croft and board members Andy Garber, Anne Hercules and Bernie Albertini all voted in favor.
Attorney Aderholt said this vote was one of the most difficult he has taken during his time on the school board, saying he would have voted differently if the policy vote had come first and the MOU vote second. suggested that it might have been.
“I completely agree and recognize that there are children in our community who don’t have access to health care, and that’s a problem,” Aderholt said after the meeting. “But my problem is that existing state laws don’t take into account the various issues and questions that can arise when you combine medical and school settings. Parents aren’t necessarily involved. Therefore, medical care will be provided without the presence of parents.
“Right now, parental consent is required for students to receive any medical treatment, and I think the policy (passed) does a good job of requiring that. I just want to bring medical care to school settings. I’m thinking about the problems that could arise with integrating into the , so I hope the Legislature sets some guardrails and some parameters around that so we can do that in our schools as well. You’ll feel even better now that you have it in place.”
Ms. Aderholt asked Mr. Croft to withdraw the memorandum and discussion of agenda policies, but Mr. Croft chose not to do so, she said.
“I hope that WVU Medicine understands that we are very grateful for what the Board of Directors is providing to the community. Just thinking about it gives me heartburn.”
Aderholt added that even though she is a lawyer and a mother, she was unaware of the privacy protections that allow older children to receive treatment for adult issues such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections without their parents’ knowledge. Ta. The law also does not specify at what age a child can receive these protections, she said.
During discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, the board amended the proposed policy to initially start by having the clinic treat only UW-Madison students to avoid privacy concerns from treating older youth. It was clearly stated that.
The memorandum of understanding and subsequent policy that was passed provides that nurse practitioners will work at the Madison School for a total of eight hours per week, but the number of hours per day has not yet been determined.
Croft and Superintendent Kim Miller said two layers of consent will be required before treatment. First, a consent form is sent home for parents to sign at the beginning of the new school year. Then, if the child looks sick at school, the administrator will call the parent and ask if the child can be seen by a nurse at the clinic.
“All we want is a clinic where when a child has a sore ear or throat, they can call home and say, ‘Susie has a sore throat.’ Do you want to stay or do you want to go ahead and meet her?” Miller said. “Then we can always call them back and tell them Susie needs antibiotics. We just want to have that conversation.
“We just want to provide health care to kids who don’t have access to it.”
He said similar medical clinics already exist in 47 of West Virginia’s 55 counties.
The nurse is already employed at the facility, said Douglas Harrison, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, who was present at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We’re going to treat like any other clinic,” he said. “We accept any form of payment. If you can’t pay, we’ll still treat you.”
There will be financial losses from the clinic, Harrison acknowledged. He suspects that most of the children being treated come from families without health insurance or on Medicaid.
Dave Crum, director of operations for Ohio County Schools, provided a timeline for how long construction will take to complete to make both the medical facility and the existing dental office accessible. .
He said additional measurements will be taken this week and the fire department will also be coming to inspect the scene.
“It would be great if we could get it done by the end of the year,” Crum told board members.
