Dr. Noah Kohn sits in his spare office at the school-based health clinic attached to Cunningham Elementary School. Kohn gave up a lucrative private practice to run the clinic, which was set up by Communities in Schools, a nonprofit group that matches campuses in need with donors and volunteers.
Friday, July 18, 2008 | 2 a.m.
In the student health center at Cunningham Elementary School, a young girl waits to see the doctor.
Her arms and legs are covered by a painful maze of tiny red marks. It takes a moment for pediatrician Noah Kohn to recognize what he is seeing — hundreds of overlapping bites, the result of the girl’s sleeping on a bedbug-infested couch.
Cunningham, on Jimmy Durante Boulevard not far from Sam’s Town, is a long way from Summerlin, where Kohn spent about five years in private practice.
Kohn was thriving professionally, but thought he was falling short when it came to community service. He had enjoyed volunteering with a mobile clinic during his medical student days at Georgetown University but had yet to find a similar opportunity in Clark County.
At a friend’s wedding about a year ago he was introduced to Louise Helton, state director of Communities in Schools of Southern Nevada, which matches volunteers and donors with campuses in need. Idle chitchat turned to talk of work, and Helton mentioned she was having trouble finding someone qualified to oversee the group’s two school-based health centers, at Cunningham and Martinez elementary schools.
“How about a board-certified pediatrician?” Kohn said.
Now, six months after he gave up his lucrative private practice to oversee the clinics, Kohn says he is where he is supposed to be.
“I know it sounds trite, but I absolutely love what I’m doing,” Kohn said. “I love being able to help people.”
Martinez, in North Las Vegas, has one of the district’s highest percentages of at-risk students from low-income families. Communities in Schools opened the student health center there in 2004.
Cunningham was selected in part for its proximity to other district schools, which makes it easier to refer students and their families for services. The health center opened in October.
It’s mostly the working poor who visit the clinics, Helton said. They don’t qualify for Medicaid and can’t afford the minimal costs associated with the state’s subsidized health plan. She estimated that 10 percent of the families visiting the clinic receive public assistance.
The clinics serve from 150 to 250 patients a month, providing everything from vaccinations to dental care to mental health services. Struggling families also receive referrals for social services, legal assistance and housing help.
“We try to go the next step, beyond the therapeutic care,” Helton said. “What we do here is look at the bigger picture.”
Brad Burns, division president of Centex Homes, covered the $1.1 million cost of building the health centers through the Burns Family Trust. Private donations will cover the cost of a third student health center, scheduled to open next year at Elaine Wynn Elementary School. Wynn is chairwoman of the national board of directors of Communities in Schools.
It costs about $300,000 a year to operate the two clinics, which are managed by the nonprofit Community Outreach Medical Center, with most of the funds coming from United Way.
Local dentists volunteer through Miles for Smiles, and the University of Nevada School of Medicine, UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada also provide staff. The School District pays the utility bills.
“This isn’t about one organization or one volunteer,” Helton said. “We’re talking about an army.”
The nonprofit Nevada Health Centers operates similar clinics at C.P. Squires Elementary School, Roy Martin Middle School and Valley High School. Basic High School also has a campus health center, operated in partnership with Nevada State College.
Without the campus clinics, the only place a school could send an ailing student was University Medical Center’s emergency room, said Diana Taylor, director of health services for the district.
There are students whose families have little or no health insurance and cannot afford even basic medical care, she said. That leads to students’ showing up at school with untreated illnesses, as well as undiagnosed vision and hearing problems.
The health centers are providing “a lot of medical care that our students otherwise just wouldn’t be getting,” Taylor said. “That’s an invaluable resource.”
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