Health Clinic Materializing at Middle School

HARRISON – When Harrison Community Schools Superintendent Rick Foote informed the HCS Board of Education at their March 9 meeting about the possibility of the school district being able to establish an onsite medical clinic, the idea was enthusiastically well-received. However, the project was contingent on Harrison Schools being selected as recipient of the grant which would fund the endeavor. That $195,000 Child and Adolescent Health Center Grant through Michigan Department of Health and Human Services ultimately was awarded and some serious remodeling work has been underway at the Harrison Middle School. It has involved lots of partition walls construction, taking over the former teachers’ lounge and half the old computer lab for a two-person reception area, along with two exam rooms, mental health offices, and an office/counseling room, along with room for performing simple laboratory work.

With school administrators and staff working to comply with the continually shifting plan for safely reopening schools, the clinic construction has been taking place during down-to-the-wire preparations for the Aug. 24 start of the 2020-2021 school year. The earlier start this year was set to help facilitate the construction/remodeling work being done at Larson Elementary, as well as completion of the demolition/renovation work at the Hillside Elementary building in time for the 2021-2022 school year start date.

Administrators from all the school buildings took time away from those preparations Thursday, Aug. 13 to get updated on the clinic’s operation by MidMichigan Community Health Services representative Diane Nielsen, director of grants and school-based health services, and Michelle Wolfe, P.A.-C. The clinic service provider will be Wolfe, a certified physician assistant from MidMichigan Community Health-Houghton Lake.

Nielsen explained that the foundation grant provided funding for the building renovations and clinic set-up, and that after the grant funds are consumed, the clinic will be supported by insurance billing. She also noted that MidMichigan Community Health Services applied for the grant, so it would be operating the clinic inside the school.

She said in addition to having Wolfe in place, interviews were being conducted for behavioral health counseling. The clinic is scheduled to be complete by Aug. 28, but a state inspection would be needed and those are often slow in materializing.

Foote explained that a protocol needed to be established with the clinic personnel for safely handling admission of patients. Nielsen was informed that roughly 1,300 students are in the district (approximately 100 per grade level), and that about one-third of HCS students were signed up to attend virtually. Foote explained that students were being required to commit to whichever form of education they chose for at least a semester.

When Nielsen broached the possibility of clinic-offered coronavirus testing, Foote said the health department medical director had not recommended it currently, because the turn-around time is so brief from a negative test to possible exposure by other students. There was also discussion of the protocol if a child does test positive, which includes notification of the health department and a flow chart indicating close contacts of that student and how to notify parents.

Aside from COVID-19 concerns, Nielsen said that when a sick child presents at the clinic, the protocol is to first screen students for strep throat, flu, pink eye, etc.

It was noted that one of the school COVID-19 alterations will be walk-through temperature screening gates stationed at each school’s entrance. Foote explained that the readout visible to others would be covered to protect individual privacy. Nielsen advised that other school districts she has been working with are asking that parents do temperature checks on their students prior to boarding their busses or being dropped off at school.

It also was made clear the school will be tightly locked, and that a call must be made to the school to be able to let anyone into the building to access the clinic. The exterior doors for clinic admittance are adjacent to the media center (the second double doors to the left of the middle school office door). That security protocol will continue, even after the pandemic issues resolve.

Of course, the hustle and bustle in the middle and high schools didn’t actually stop just because there was a clinic walk-through. As Foote said, the way this semester will unfold is a continuing work in progress. As he was departing the clinic walk through, the adjustments continued.

“We’ve got to go discuss our staffing issue now,” he said. “It changes by the hour, every time another kid signs up.”

And with that, off he left to helm the ship, rocking on those ever-changing waves. Anyone who grew up in the ’60s knows that in any given week it was nearly impossible to turn on the TV without seeing a variety show with the iconic juggler placing plates atop vertical dowels and giving them a spin. That’s what it was like watching the superintendent as he kept all the pandemic plates spinning, continually returning to each one and doing his very best to ensure that none of them fell.

Actually, Foote is only the lead juggler, assisted by the principals and staffs in all the school buildings who are making myriad adjustments and creating new ways of engaging and supporting their students. They are rising to an unparalleled challenge as they work to ensure quality education for students, while attempting to protect them from the microscopic virus that has nearly paralyzed the entire world.