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Telehealth initiative launches in four rural school districts

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Farm by the road in eastern North Carolina. Molly Osborne/EdNC

The North Carolina Community Schools Coalition (the Coalition) gathered representatives from four northeastern NC districts on Oct. 15 to kick off a new telehealth service for students and staff.

Seven schools — including Windsor Elementary, Bertie Middle School, Gaston STEM Leadership Academy, Northampton County High School, Mattamuskeet School, Washington County High School, and Washington County Elementary School — are participating in this pilot.

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Melissa McDonald is director of services for the Coalition and said the organization started to think about health interventions in school back in May 2024. According to McDonald, leadership in each district identified the access to health care as an issue for their students and staff.

“Whether it was the doctor’s office is just really far away, or getting parents to be able to get to the school, then have to take their kid to the doctor, and get back — those are really big challenges that they (school districts) were seeing,” said McDonald.

According to the NC Department of Health and Human Services, all four counties — Bertie, Hyde, Northampton, and Washington — are designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) and have HPSA scores above 17 (on a scale of 0-25), the highest range available on this map. This is a composite score that indicates a shortage of primary care providers.

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A possible solution? Bringing access to health care and providers to the students via telehealth appointments at school.

The City of Medicine Volunteer Medical Corps (VMC) will manage the service. The provider is no stranger to working with schools.

The VMC first began working with Durham Public Schools in July of 2020. Dr. Cathi Sander started the organization as a way to increase access to preventative health care for school aged children, in collaboration with community and local nonprofits.

The VMC will ensure that different providers are available for telehealth screenings for four of the five school days. Students must have signed consent forms before using the service and the Community School Coordinators are currently promoting the service and educating parents. These Community School Coordinators are full-time employees of the school who work in tandem with the organization and help facilitate programs and partnerships like this one.

Parents will still be notified when a student needs an appointment, but ideally they won’t have to leave their jobs or homes to come get a sick kid.

Access to telehealth could keep parents from missing work, reduce transportation issues if providers are far away, decrease student absenteeism, and streamline the system for seeing a physician for more common illnesses that are easily treated.

McDonald said metrics of success will be measured by how many students and educators use the service. An improved school attendance record would also be an indicator that the program is successful.

The overall hope, McDonald said, is to help these communities have increased access to health care by building the infrastructure so that health care can be delivered through schools.