More ideas health care vs. hospital care -- school-based clinics in Michigan

Photos by David Coates/The Detroit News. Debra Wilkerson, medical assistant at the Butzel Elementary & Middle School St. John Health Clinic helps Travis Swift, a 6th grader at Butzel Elementary & Middle School, with a cut hand. From the article "School health clinics may be cut: State's medical crisis threatens centers in Detroit where children need most help." (2000)

Here's an example of creating community-based health care services from the Detroit News: "Health center finds home in school. St. John Healthcare clinic provides full-time medical services to Hazel Park elementary students." From the article:

Kelly Satterfield used to be uneasy about sending her special needs child to school not knowing exactly where the district's traveling nurse would be stationed each day. Satterfield's son, Steven, has narcolepsy and Dandy Walker cysts, which impair the body's ability to drain cerebrospinal fluids from the brain, and requires special care and medication. About a year ago, she joined a Hazel Park parent advisory group assembled to work with St. John Healthcare to bring a health facility into the Hazel Park Community School District. The health center, which was built over the summer in Jardon/Webb School, opened Oct. 11.

"It's good to know that there is somebody on site should there be a problem," said Satterfield of Ferndale. "It is also good for mental health with kids that get into scuffles in school as well as all the parents that have trouble affording health care." The space was constructed from the school's former cosmetology center and includes one exam room, a testing laboratory, an open waiting room and offices to house a nurse practitioner, social worker and receptionist. Since 1996, St. John Healthcare has established 12 school-based health centers in Detroit and selected Hazel Park as their first Oakland County site, said Kenneth Coleman, manager for School-based Health Centers.

Morris Richardson II / The Detroit News. Family nurse practitioner student Jessie Matthews, left, listens as Dr. T. Jane Caison-Sorey goes over a student's symptoms at Hutchins Middle School. A medical center has been operated there by Henry Ford Health System for 12 years. From "School clinics give parents some comfort." (2003)