Indiana's First School Tele-health Clinic Open

ELWOOD, Ind. -- Indiana’s first school-based tele-health clinic is open in Elwood and could be a model for improving healthcare access in rural areas.

Telemedicine is health care delivered remotely, often through video conferencing, and patients can even get some prescriptions without an in-person visit. Elwood Intermediate School’s new clinic is the first to bring this service directly to Hoosier students.

These north-central Indiana middle schoolers may now see a doctor through a video conference, and the setup includes a digital stethoscope and other tools to help a linking provider make a diagnosis.

Nurse Heather Gordon hopes the in-school clinic will cut down on student absenteeism.   

"A lot of times they can’t get in when they are sick, so we’re waiting two or three days for them to get in and then it’s a longer healing time," says Gordon. 

Accessing health care in rural areas of Indiana is more difficult because of factors like poverty, transportation and provider shortages.  The tele-health clinic will also provide students with behavioral health services, like counseling.

Indiana State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams says efforts like this will decrease barriers.

"Innovative pilots like this are really going to be key in improving the health of what is largely a rural state," Adams says. 

There are plans to open six more clinics with grant funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration.  

The new school-based clinic is funded and run through a partnership between Indiana Rural Health Association, St. Vincent, Managed Health Services and Aspire Indiana.