Avera to expand eCare school nurse program
School nurses can diagnose ear infections from miles away.
It's not a superpower. It's telemedicine.
A partnership between Avera eCare and the Sioux Falls School District allows nurses to treat students remotely through laptops, and after the first full year of a pilot program, Avera is looking to expand to more schools, according to Mandy Bell, quality and innovation officer with Avera eCare.
As the world of medicine shifts to meeting people where they are, Bell hopes the eCare school nurse project can serve as a model for other schools to effectively meet the health needs of their students.
"It gives everybody a peace of mind ... it allows us to basically have a nurse in the building at all times," said Aimee Ullom, school nurse at Jane Addams Elementary School and Axtell Park.
Video: Watch Avera's eCare in action.
The eCare school nurse pilot started in early 2015. Recently, the school board heard an update on the program after its first full school year.
More than 500 students used eCare for virtual visits with an Avera nurse in the eight schools involved with the project, and the board report called the service "more beneficial" than anticipated. Pending budget approval, Avera hopes to add eCare to four more schools in the fall.
Remote nurses aren't meant to replace the existing school nursing staff, according to Molly Satter, health services supervisor with the district.
"Right at the beginning of the program, we anticipated some concern with that, and so we tried to ease those concerns of the nurses and make them a part of the whole process," Satter said.
School nurses work closely with the eCare nurses, Ullom said. It's a collaborative process where eCare nurses share details of student visits with the building nurse, and students receive the same level of treatment.
"The eCare nurse is going to ask the same questions that I would ask if I was there in person," Ullom said.
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The only difference is the camera.
Trained clerical workers in each eCare school operate the laptop and camera per the instruction of the nurse on the screen.
"They can visualize skin rashes," said Sheena Watkins, school nurse at Hayward and Renberg Elementary Schools. "They have an otoscope so they can look in ears to diagnose ear infections. It's pretty comprehensive care that they recieve."
A video presented to the board shows examples of what these virtual visits look like in practice.
Bell sees the partnership with the district as an example of what's called "population health," an emerging trend in healthcare that involves treating patients where they are.
"This is definitely kind of an experiment for us to see what's possible in helping reach different populations where they go about their lives," Bell said. "Whether that's at school, at work or at home."
Follow education reporter Megan Raposa on Twitter @mlraposa.