School Health

Filling the Gaps. Care for Every Student.

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School Health

Filling the Gaps. Care for Every Student.

Home » Telemedicine Services » School Health

Avel eCare School Health delivers nursing coverage to K-12 schools to ensure immediate response to student needs. Using advanced telehealth technology, school staff can connect with a virtual nurse, dedicated to their building.

When students require care and the local nurse is not onsite, the school staff can press a button and connect with an experienced school nurse within minutes for help with:

- Caring for unscheduled, urgent health care needs due to injury or illness
- Supporting daily diabetic care or other chronic care needs
- Overseeing medication administration
- Handling emergency or 9-11 situations, prior to EMS arrival

In addition to on demand care, our season school health nurses support:

- Developing emergency health plans
- Providing advice for 504 and Individualized Education Program (IEP) plans
- Support mentoring of new school nurses
- Advise leadership on health policy issues

For students with ongoing behavioral health needs, schools can also access scheduled therapy sessions with our pediatric trained therapist.

Combined, these services empower school districts with the peace of mind knowing that experienced nurses are on stand-by to provide high quality care to students and support their district. This reduces the risk of liability, helps reduce the pressure on school staff, and saves costs and time.

Services

Avel eCare School Health assists schools by providing safe, cost-effective care for students via telemedicine. Avel eCare’s advanced two-way video technology and specialized telehealth stethoscope, otoscopes and exam cameras connect students and school staff to an experienced registered nurse within minutes.

Avel eCare School Health nurses can:

- Provide back-up care when a school nurse isn’t available on-site
- Care for students with unscheduled, urgent health care needs due to injury or illness, including (COVID-19 symptoms, head lice, and anxiety
- Guide care for students with chronic or complex health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, life-threatening allergies and seizures
- Refer students to providers and connect families with local resources
- Support case management and serve as a point of contact for medication refills, side effects, order changes, nursing care to be provided at school, mental health needs, etc.
- Design school health programs and provide education to help maintain a safe environment and minimize health-related barriers to students’ ability to learn
- Develop emergency health plans
- Offer medical advice for 504 and Individual Education Program (IEP) plans

How it Works

1. A student experiences an injury, illness or needs assistance with a health condition such as diabetes, asthma, etc.
2. The designated school staff, often the school secretary, utilizes a telehealth tablet to request support from Avel eCare School Health
3. Typically, in less than 1 minute, Avel eCare School Nurses respond on video, and begin to provide care
4. The Avel eCare School Health nurse completes the assessment of the student, leveraging thermometers, stethoscopes, otoscopes, exam cameras as appropriate
5. Based on the assessment, the nurse will advise staff members on how to help the student, connect with parents, or checks back in with the student after a short observation period
6. The nurse documents the encounter in the school information system, and closes the loop on any communication needs
7. For students with identified, short-term, behavioral health needs, Avel eCare has a scheduled therapy program

Benefits

There are many benefits to having ready access to a school nurse, including decreasing their risk of liability when it comes to handling health concerns and delivering medications. Schools parntering Avel eCare have noted the following benefits:

- Cost-effective staffing. For school buildings and districts that cannot hire a fulltime nurse, Avel eCare represents an affordable, full-day solution. We deliver a positive ROI for buildings frequently leveraging temporary or substitute staffing, or for those with unfilled vacancies.
- Nurse Staff Support. Many districts are facing significant nursing shortages. We support these staff by taking on some of daily student care, so they can focus on the students and their needs and spend less time in the car between buildings. For nurses new to schools, we provide ongoing mentoring and collegial support to help them grow in their practice.
- Office Staff Support. Schools revolve around doing their best for students. We work with office staff to receive training to safely administer medication and take the burden off them making decisions to send children home or communicate with parents.
- Improved Absenteeism. Post COVID-19, we have supported schools in improving the number of children sent home ill. Currently, 90% of our calls result in a return to class rate.
- Improved Disease Management. We work with our youngest diabetic students multiple times each school day, helping them count carbs, track their blood sugar, and administer insulin. We are so proud to continue to see measurable improvements in their health and readiness to learn.
- Support for Students with Behavioral Needs. Some students can benefit from a series of scheduled appointments with a therapist. Our data has demonstrated improvements in reported feelings of sadness or depression as well as improvements in classroom behaviors.

Avel eCare School Health:
Partners in Care

Avel eCare School Health Awards

- 2023 Hero Award (American School Health Association)
- 2021 Community Star Award (National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health)
- 2020 Outstanding Rural Health Program for North Dakota