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- The Weber School District is implementing telephone health care visits in schools.
- The program aims to provide faster health care access with minimal school disruption.
- Intermountain Health's Connect Care facilitates visits, improving access for underserved families.
OGDEN – The Weber School District is one of seven school districts across the state that are rolling out a program designed to bring telehealth urgent care visits to schools.
The program was first tested at the Wasatch School District and is now being expanded. Marie Evans, school nurse supervisor with the Weber School District, said the idea is to get help to students and parents faster, with minimal interruption to the school day.
"We see a lot of things during the school day in the health offices, like ear aches, sore throats, skin rashes, different things that they don't necessarily need to miss school for," Evans explained.
Providing parents sign permission forms ahead of time, school nurses can help set up urgent care visits through Intermountain Health's Connect Care. Various medical devices are connected to the internet, allowing data to be sent back to the doctor. Specialized cameras even send real-time video to help check the ears, nose, throat, and skin.
"The device allows us to see and hear with more depth for assessment skills," Amy Back, Intermountain Health's pediatric director of Telehealth, explained. "Typically if you're just a normal connect care recipient, you don't have that device."
The Connect Care appointments can also be made available to families that might otherwise not have the best access to health care.
"That was like our first objective. We really wanted to increase access," Back said. "Connect Care takes most insurances. If that's not available, we do have some financial funding through Intermountain Health to help support these families. We want kids to get care regardless of their ability to pay."
Evans added that while Weber School District is only partnering with Intermountain Health for now, they hope to eventually add more providers so families could ideally use their regular physicians. The program could also add mental health visits in the future.
"Anything that we can provide to support families and help students be successful. It's just a really exciting opportunity," Evans said.
