COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Launched in January 2014, the Community Health Center of Branch County’s School Telehealth Program was the first school health program to use telemedicine in Michigan. And today, CHC received recognition for that effort.
The Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) today announced the hospital in Coldwater was one of 4 winners of the MHA’s 2015 Ludwig Community Benefit Award. It’s named in memory of a former MHA president who championed investing in the community’s overall health. Each winner will receive $3,000 from the MHA Health Foundation to assist in its health improvement efforts.
The Tele-Health program includes clinic sites that serve students in the sixth through 12th grades in the Coldwater, Bronson and Quincy school districts. Each school clinic is staffed with a registered nurse and is connected via high-speed, secure, telemedicine equipment to the CHC Pediatric and Adolescent Clinic. Telemedicine calls are answered by the medical staff at the clinic. Working within their scope of practice under the supervision of a medical director, the school nurses can provide acute care and chronic disease management, administer medications, complete immunization assessments, offer confidential services and provide health education.
The program immediately improved the ratio of school nurses to well students in Branch County and expanded access to more than 2,700 adolescents.
