BUTTE - Students at Kennedy Elementary school in Butte no longer have to leave the school to get basic medical treatment now that the school has its own in-house health clinic.
“From the minute I hit the ground here 13 years ago, I’ve been talking about school-based health centers nonstop, and I think maybe finally things got through to enough people that we were able to get one started,” said Dr. Serena Brewer of the Southwest Montana Community Health Clinic.
Though school-based clinics have been around national for about 50 years, Kennedy Elementary is the first school in Butte to have one. Students can receive regular checkups or receive minor medical attention without having to leave the school.
“It’s a big improvement with the attendance aspect of it, because kids are not missing out on instruction time, which is key,” said Kennedy Elementary Principal Travis Johnson.
A nurse remains on staff all day and a doctor from the Southwest Montana Community Health Center can examine a student remotely with a monitoring device.
“The device itself is about the size of my cellphone and the nurse holds it so I’m doing the cardiac examine, it goes over the heart, various points over the lungs. It has an attachment for her to hold up to the ears for me to look inside ears,” said Dr. Brewer.
This clinic has been operating at Kennedy since the beginning of the school year.
“I think it would be a great thing to eventually see something like this in each school,” said Johnson.
And all it takes is a simple walk down the hall for students to make it to the Kennedy health center and this saves parents a lot of time. And, as we know, time is money.
“Three days of missed work for a parent is the equivalent of their grocery budget for the month or their utility budget for the month. So if you have a sick kiddo it’s really imperative that you not only get them seen, but you try to minimize the impact both on their school schedule as well as your own work schedule,” said Dr. Brewer.
