Telehealth Brings Doctors into Schools
From infancy thru adolescence and into young adulthood, the ability to access quality healthcare can often determine if a child will mature healthy, or be afflicted with a lifelong condition that might have otherwise been avoided. Providers worldwide are using telehealth to break down barriers and find unique new ways to reach children and their parents.
Typically found in communities that face economic and healthcare burdens, School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) exist to meet the healthcare needs of children and parents, as well as local community members. The synergy of telehealth and SBHCs enables primary care medicine to reach into schools for assessment, diagnosis and prescribing, reducing the need for parents to usher their children from school to the doctor’s office.
When children get sick at school, it can be a big disruption. Kids miss class, and their parents need to leave work, try to schedule a last minute doctor’s appointment or visit the Emergency Department. Telehealth is changing the equation by connecting kids to pediatricians without leaving their school’s campus. That’s the idea behind Children’s Health in Texas innovative program which has gone from reaching several hundred kids to thousands.
Children’s started a telehealth program at a pair of preschools in 2013. Today, there are telemedicine carts in 57 urban and rural campuses across North Texas. It’s one of the largest school-based telemedicine programs for kids in the country. Dozens of schools across the country are experimenting with telemedicine – from Kansas to Arizona and Georgia. Most are collecting data to see if the programs help kids miss fewer days of school while helping parents save time and money.
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Avizia was acquired by American Well in July of 2018. Information on this page refers to activities that occurred prior to the acquisition and are presented for historical context. Together we provide a comprehensive acute care offering—a full end-to-end telemedicine solution for health systems and their providers.