Chula Vista Mobile Health Clinic Helps Improve Student Attendance, Test Scores
Attendance and test scores for elementary school students in Chula Vista have improved since school officials partnered with area hospitals to establish a mobile health clinic, the New York Times reports. The partnership formed as a result of Chula Vista Schools Superintendent Dennis Doyle's concern about poor attendance and Sharp Chula Visa Medical Center CEO Britt Berrett's concern about uncompensated treatment given to children who did not have a regular source of care. The clinic, staffed with a nurse, a nurse practitioner and a nurse assistant, visits five area schools that have high rates of absenteeism to treat health conditions such as asthma that would "otherwise have kept pupils at home." Chula Vista schools also have family centers that help parents complete applications to enroll their children in Medi-Cal, Healthy Families or other "less-well-known" public health programs. In addition, the centers train mothers to work as "community liaisons" and inform their peers about prenatal care, diabetes and depression, the Times reports. The services provided by the mobile clinic, which cost about $300 per student per year, are funded by two local hospitals, the Chula Vista school district, the city of Chula Vista, San Diego County, Medi-Cal and private foundations (Rothstein, New York Times, 9/11).
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