Unique in-school health clinic helped identify district-wide COVID-19 spike
LAKE LUZERNE, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- This week the Hadley-Luzerne Central School District had to shift to remote learning after confirming a staggering 29 positive COVID-19 cases in the small Adirondack community.
"None of them came from within the school district itself, within our walls, but from outside events," said District Superintendent Beecher Baker.
He added that the cases were traced back to social interactions such as family gatherings, sleepovers and birthday parties. But he said his district was able to quickly identify those impacted by the spike by immediately conducting on-site rapid COVID-19 tests and then isolating infected students.
So how are they able to do this?
It's because their district has something many others do not have: A medical office complete with a pediatrician, nurse practitioner and medical staff located right inside their Stuart M. Townsend Elementary School building.
The office is part of the Hudson Headwaters Health System, and it is their first in-school location. The nonprofit coordinated with the district within the small community in Warren County, which is medically underserved.
Students, whose parents sign them up for the program, typically go to the clinic for things like annual exams, sports physicals and vaccinations, just as they would at any health center.
"They can be scheduled in here routinely, and several students do receive all of their pediatric care through this office," said Kevin Dougrey, VP Medical Staff Operations, Hudson Headwaters Health System.
"This program was put in place a few years ago, certainly not with COVID in mind at the time. But it has been a godsend in this scenario," added Baker.
The district and Hudson Headwaters are now making plans to utilize the health center as a future COVID-19 vaccination site.
"As long as it would be appropriate under what the state has given us permission, but we are really under their discretion as for when we have [the] vaccine and who we can vaccinate," Dougrey said.
As for Baker, he says he would like to see this kind of program expand to other underserved school districts.