Primary care appointments
Primary care providers are the “front door” to health care. They manage a patient’s care through physical examinations and non-emergency injury or illness. They also send patients to specialists as needed.
Primary care school-based telehealth benefits
- Annual physicals can be conducted in the school, so they are not a barrier to school enrollment.
- Patients can be seen immediately for things like strep throat or ear infections, so care is not put off or ignored.
- Health care providers can treat minor injuries before they get worse.
More health care services for school-based telehealth
- Schools can provide care for chronic health problems such as asthma.
- Schools can provide annual screening for eyesight, hearing, and other assessments.
- Parents or guardians have been responsible for following up on the results of this testing. School-based telehealth can reduce this burden on the parents or guardians.
- Schools can provide expanded telehealth-based speech and occupational therapy to students.
- These programs can be expanded to include additional health care providers, including specialists such as therapists not available in the school or community.
- Schools can provide healthy living programs for students such as healthy eating, activity, and weight programs.
Additional Resources:
- Health-e-schools — from the Rural Health Information Hub