NON-TRADITIONAL ACCESS
schools in Dallas and has
since expanded to reach
students in more than 100
schools across North Texas.
To date, the program has
conducted more than 4,000
virtual doctor visits, allowing
students convenient access
to treatment at their school
and the ability to get back to
class quickly.
Parents sign a consent form
for each academic year,
allowing their child to
participate in the program.
When a child presents in
school with symptoms, the on-
site school nurse determines
whether the student needs
to see a pediatrician or
nurse practitioner and calls
the parent.
Parent involvement is at their
discretion, explains Stormee
Williams, M.D., pediatrician
and medical director of the
School Based Telemedicine
Program at Children’s Health.
(HIPAA). Through extended mobile
technology, parents can utilize after-hours
connections to discuss their child’s virtual
visit summary, prescriptions and any other
requested information. Details of the visit
are also communicated back to the child’s
regular doctor.
“An after-visit report, which summarizes
the entire visit, diagnosis that was made,
and the treatment plan, is sent to the
child’s primary care provider and the
parent,” Dr. Williams said.
Children’s Health staffs its telehealth
medicine program with a pediatrician or
nurse practitioner at Children’s Health
Pediatric Group, the health system’s
extensive regional primary care/medical
home network. The system lauds this
telehealth technology for providing a
natural path to community primary care
providers, fostering the establishment
of “medical homes” for school children,
which Children’s Health notes is an
ultimate objective of the program.
Since 2013, this non-traditional access
point has provided care in nearly 4,000
Technology and non-traditional access
virtual visits for students, meeting their
points makes healthcare convenient care
needs quickly and reducing hours spent
away from school and, for parents, hours away from
“When she calls you, the school nurse asks if you want
work. Children’s Health accepts major insurers and
to be involved,” said Dr. Williams, referring to parents’
Medicaid and notes that a family will never be out
involvement in their child’s telehealth visit. “Some of
of pocket more than $50 for the visit. The system
our parents come in and actually attend the visit with
also estimates that its telehealth network has helped
their child. Other times, the parent calls in and is on
prevent as many as 2,600 primary care referrals
speaker phone during the visit.”
to local emergency departments and urgent care
School nurses are equipped with secure, encrypted
centers already.
telemedicine technology, which includes high-
definition, real-time videoconferencing and state-
of-the-art digital scopes. Strep and flu rapid tests are
also available as diagnostic tools for the visit, which
is confidential and compliant with the Healthcare
Information and Portability Accountability Act
S ince 2013, t his
n on-traditional acc ess
po int has provided c are
in nearly 4,000 virt ual
visits for studen ts.
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SUMMER 2018
Children’s Health has also learned this telehealth
initiative allows for portability outside of the
school setting, too. Last year, in the aftermath of
Hurricane Harvey, the pediatric health provider set
up a telemedicine station at the mega-shelter that
housed hurricane evacuees, the Kay Bailey Hutchison
Convention Center in Dallas. Emergency physicians at
the pediatric hospital remotely observed children at the
shelter, via a computer monitor and specially designed
equipment for measuring vital signs.
Getting sick or injured
is never convenient. But
here in North Texas,
we’re making sure that
getting
the
medical
attention you need is
convenient.
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