School-based health centers, some kids' only health care for miles, see steep drop in patients

Cristi Wilson has relied on a school-based health center in Montrose, Colorado, through years of sinus and ear infections, sore throats and routine check-ups for her two kids.

When one daughter broke her arm, the health clinic was able to take an X-ray more quickly and inexpensively than the emergency room would. Wilson said the clinic saved her family hundreds of dollars on that visit alone.

Now that the clinic is closed for in-person visits because of the coronavirus pandemic, Wilson’s daughters are still able to get care by consulting with clinicians via video calls.

In some areas of Colorado, school-based health centers (SBHCs) have been students’ only source of healthcare for miles. And they still are, with many of the centers having transitioned to providing telehealth services since schools were closed March 18. But appointments via video calls can’t address all patients’ needs and, for some families, can be logistically harder than visiting clinics in person. Those limitations combined with fear from the pandemic, families being unaware clinics are open and economic fallout on an already financially precarious population has contributed to some centers’ patient load dropping by as much as 75%.

Read more: https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2020/04/24/school-based-health-care-centers-coronavirus-patients/