WILSON, N.C. (WNCN) — Increasing access to school-based health is a top priority for the Wilson County School District.
It’s one of the reasons why they developed the Wilson Area School Health Center (WASH).
The program is a collaboration between the school district, Wilson Health Department and the Healthcare Foundation of Wilson and provides access to health services like sick visits, wellness and sports physicals and vaccinations.
Paula Benson, Executive Director of the Healthcare Foundation of Wilson, which is a partner of the program, says they created it because many kids don’t have access to high quality healthcare.
“Those barriers can exist anywhere from transportation, from financial resources or just access and locations to where they might live so by making this investment where they could receive healthcare in a place where they were already spending time for much of their day it just proved to be a very strong investment in their health,” said Benson.
The program serves both insured and uninsured students and staff and bills private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare. There is also a sliding scale fee for those who are non-insured.
Kim Almkuist, the Family Nurse Practitioner for the program says since the program’s launch in 2017 it’s grown tremendously.
They currently operate out of four schools. The newest center in Fike High School opened in January 2023.
Almkuist says there are challenges to providing more access like finding enough staff.
“One of the major challenges is that schools only operate 10 months out of the year and most nursing positions are 12 months out of the year so just trying to find the right person to fit in with our schedule,” said Almkuist.
Celita Graham with the Wilson Health Department says, overall, the program has big benefits for students.
“It does help with reducing chronic absenteeism. That’s one of the main goals,” said Graham. “We do want our students to do well in school so that’s one of the reasons why we have the WASH centers here just because it’s so convenient to where if they need that medical attention, they can have it right here on the school campuses.”
More plans are in the works for the WASH program.
The school district says they’re planning to open another clinic this summer.
Staff say there are also plans in the works to add a mental health component to the program.
“We’d like to see more of our WASH clinics in more schools as we continue moving forward,” said Assistant Superintendent, Ben Williams.
You can find out more about the WASH centers here.
