Students at Patrick County High School have a new health care option with Tri-Area Community Health’s school-based clinic. Opening of the clinic coincided with the Tuesday, Aug. 11 new school year.
Initially, the clinic will offer students virtual appointments.
Director of School-Based Services Pam Hylton said virtual appointments will be available until nurses and medical providers are trained and in place at the PCHS clinic.
“They would just be able to start using it through the school nurse’s office at each school. We have provided each school, including the high school, with a TytoCare device, which is a digital instrument that the school nurse can use for students whose parents have given consent for them to use our Tri-Area services. It’s like a regular doctor’s appointment, but they use those tools to obtain blood pressure, pulse, they can get the heartbeat, ears, nose, throat exam,” she said.
Hylton said the TytoCare device also has a camera that can look inside and take pictures, if needed, of the ears, nose, throat and skin.
While she does not have a definitive date, Hylton estimates in-person services will begin sometime this fall.
Tri-Area currently has five school-based health clinics, with medical providers in place at the other four.
“We’ll be scheduling appointments with those school-based providers virtually until our positions are filled,” she said.
Tri-Area began offering school-based clinics in the City of Galax before expanding to clinics in Carroll, Grayson and Floyd counties.
Hylton said Tri-Area decided to open a school-based health clinic in Patrick County after Schools Superintendent Dr. Jason Wood approached the organization’s CEO, Dr. James Werth.
“That was about the time the urgent care closed in town, so there were fewer options for students to get care and for those types of acute conditions and things that arise. We came up with a proposal, and he presented it to the school board and it was approved. We’ve been working on this since February to get everything planned and implemented, and we’re just really excited to get open as soon as we can,” Hylton said.
Parents can schedule appointments for their students by going to Tri-Area Community Health’s website and selecting Patrick County Schools from the School Clinics dropdown list.
“They can register in advance if they would like to go ahead and get that done in the event that their child needs to use the clinic, or they can wait until the need arises and go online and register that day, the same day as the appointment,” Hylton said.
Paper copies of the registration form will also be available from school nurses and principals, Hylton said.
“If they’re already a Tri-Area patient there still is an additional consent form just because the school clinic is not the same as the big clinic, so even currently Tri-Area patients need to register with our school clinic,” Hylton said.
The school-based clinic is not a free clinic, and insurance, including Medicaid, will be billed.
“If someone does not have insurance they can apply for our sliding scale fee, and that is a reduced rate for uninsured patients. Tri-Area is a federally qualified health care center and we don’t turn people away based on their insurance status. We don’t collect payments from students, but we will bill in the mail or payments can be made online through the patient portal or over the phone,” Hylton said, adding that payment plans can also be set up.
For more information, visit Tri-Area Community Health’s website or call 540-365-4469.
Tri-Area Community Health donated boxes of tissues to Patrick County Public Schools. From left are Angie Tallman, LPC; Patrick County School Board Clerk Sara Leigh Collins; and Tri-Area Director of School-Based Services Pam Hylton.
