Nonprofit group approved to run school health centers

Friday, March 11, 2005 | 10:01 a.m.

Health Centers for Nevada, a nonprofit private company providing needy individuals with low-cost and no-cost health care throughout the state, was approved for a three-year contract to deliver health care to three schools.

The Clark County School Board voted to approve the contract Thursday night though it had balked over the deal in February.

Three school-based health centers serving thousands of students were closed March 1. The Clark County Health District had operated the centers at Valley High School, Martin Middle School and C.P. Squires Elementary School since 2001. The centers also treated students from surrounding at-risk campuses.

Dr. Carl Heard, chief medical officer of Health Centers of Nevada, said supplies and equipment would be moved into the schools on Friday. The clinics will be operating by the end of next week and expect to log about 9,000 patient visits per year.

The centers were established with grants from the Task Force for a Healthy Nevada, which oversees the state's share of a federal settlement of lawsuits against tobacco companies. School officials were notified in December that those funds would run out March 1. The health district recommended as its replacement Health Centers of Nevada.

Before allowing a private company to step in, the School Board wanted assurances that Health Centers of Nevada would abide by the district's ban on providing any "family planning" or reproductive health care.

Heard assured the School Board in February that the prohibition was spelled out in the contract.

Students who visit the centers will receive a wide range of medical services from immunizations to vision and hearing screenings, Heard said. Students may be referred to dental services and specialists when needed. The centers have been credited with reducing illness-related absences and diagnosing students with previously unidentified health problems such as asthma.

School Board member Denise Brodsky asked how the service would conduct background checks on clinic employees. Heard said that all physicians are board-certified and background checks would be completed by the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners and the state Nursing Board.