Dive Brief:
- Telemedicine programs are becoming increasingly popular in schools, a fact which is not just cool, but essential, given recent data which shows only 40% of schools across the country having a full-time nurse.
- Computer-connected otoscopes and stethoscopes are enabling doctors outside of the school building to check students' ears, noses, throats and heartbeats, which has some excited about the prospect of keeping chronically ill students in school and allowing more complex treatment to be rendered as a service to students who may not have access to quality healthcare, reports STAT news.
- Questions remain over schools' abilities to fund such programs long-term, however, and a University of Rochester professor of pediatrics says "some kids are gonna (sic) get lousy care" because of inconsistent models across schools.
Dive Insight:
Currently, STAT reports, such programs are mostly funded through some hodgepodge of Medicaid grants, private insurance, and family contributions — a model which may not be sustainable if these telemedicine programs are to be considered a viable replacement from having a school nurse on staff. A 2008 analysis of school-based dental programs found such programs to be "financially feasible" in about one-third of the states examined — only those in which the ratio of Medicaid fees is 60.5% of mean national fees.
Still, a telemedicine program could be beneficial for students whose parents can't take time off to take them to the doctor's office, and school administrators may begin to seek long-term funding solutions for such programs just as many are increasingly budgeting for other social, or wraparound, services. Research is consistent in proving student learning is compounded by a number of out-of-school factors, and districts are finding additional dollars to fund things like laundromats and adult classes to support families and students.