Starting the first week of November 2014, Madigan will open a new School Based Health Center at Woodbrook Middle School, located in Lakewood and part of the Clover Park School District. The expansion comes at a time when the SBHCs are experiencing an uptrend in the number of students seen and the percentages of those students who have received flu vaccinations and are current on their wellness visits. SBHCs are already located at Pioneer Middle School, Steilacoom High School and Lakes High School.
Woodbrook Middle School educates roughly 500 students each year, of which nearly 75 percent are military children. These clinics are the result of Madigan's partnership with local schools, allowing students who are military dependents to get select health care services in their schools.
One of the more difficult challenges for working parents is being able to take time off of work for a teen's medical appointment. For military service members, time away from work, under any circumstance, can affect readiness and unit cohesion. Military spouses are often the ones transporting children to and from the hospital, causing as much of a concern with their careers as the service members'. "Time away" also affects the child, and for teenagers with rigorous classwork, and schools with stringent attendance policies, sometimes getting to the hospital for a check-up or to receive recommended immunizations gets pushed to the bottom of the list.
Recognizing this issue, Lt. Col. (Dr.) Keith Lemmon, chief of the Madigan Pediatric Patient Centered Medical Home and Adolescent Medicine Division, played a primary role in standing up School Based Health Centers within both the Steilacoom and Clover Park School Districts.
"We've been running the SBHC for nearly two years now," said Lemmon. "When looking at our data, offering these SBHCs has saved parents over 1,600 work hours and protected nearly 2,500 student class hours."
In addition to work and school hours saved, 98 percent of appointments at the clinics are kept; students are able to access their medical care and receive necessary treatment without the added stress of missing important classroom instruction or school events. At Pioneer Middle School and Steilacoom High School, 61 percent of the eligible students enrolled in the SBHC received their influenza immunization and were up to date on their annual wellness visits. This represents a three-time increase in these important health prevention metrics compared to the average adolescent population where SBHCs are not available to military students.
The medical teams are able to recognize trends in reasons for student appointments, noting that adolescent behavioral health has become a growing area of concern. By looking at this data, the SBCH staff is able to coordinate appropriate behavioral health referrals back at the main Madigan clinics and within the community. The schools also partner with Military Family Life Consultants who offer counseling and therapy services on-site.
Parent involvement at the SBHC is encouraged. Parents have the option to attend the school-based appointments with their child, or receive a follow-up phone call from the SBHC provider detailing the discussion and treatment plan. Last year, parents volunteered hundreds of hours with the SBHCs, serving as escorts for students to and from class.
The expansion of the SBHCs also includes extending clinic hours at the high schools. Steilacoom High School SBHC hours will remain on Thursdays but will now run from 8 a.m. -- 3:30 p.m. Lakes High School SBHC hours will be moved from Wednesdays to Tuesdays from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Pioneer Middle School SBHC hours will remain on Tuesday mornings from 8 a.m. -11:30 a.m. The new Woodbrook Middle School SBHC will be open on Wednesdays from 8 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
To be seen at a Madigan SBHC, students must be enrolled at both the offering school and the Madigan Pediatrics Patient-Centered Medical Home. Parents wanting to enroll their child in the P/A PCMH can call the Madigan Managed Care Division at 253-968-2837. Appointments for the SBHCs can be made by calling the Madigan Adolescent Clinic at 253-968-1980. More information and enrollment forms can be found on the Steilacoom and Clover Park School District websites and at www.mamc.amedd.army.mil.
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