Tri-Area Community Health has reached agreements with the Carroll County Public School Division to bring immediate healthcare access to 4,200 students and staff, as well as a partnership with Everhart Primary Health Care to expand services in Cana.
James Werth, CEO of Tri-Area Community Health, informed the Carroll County Board of Supervisors about the new plan during the board’s June 3 meeting. Since meeting with the board a year ago, Werth said one of the company’s most important upgrades has come in Cana, an area serviced by years by non-profit organization Everhart Primary Health Care.
”Not long after we spoke to you last year they contacted me and said they would need to transition and asked Tri-Area if we would pick up the practice so that Cana would continue to have health care available. We agreed to do that and so we have been in transition since then,” Werth said. “The current building is off the highway. They have purchased some buildings to put on the highway so what we have doing for the past several months is making these ready to go. Our goal is July 1 to open the clinic side and then there is also a pharmacy we are hoping will open July 1, but if not the clinic and staff should be open July 1. We retained the current staff so Carole Everhart will continue the practice.”
Werth said a pharmacy technician would staff the facility four days a week, while the clinic will include evening hours and Saturday hours in an effort to give more folks access.
”That is something new for us but we are going to try it down there. And then the goal is to also have availability for the school (St. Paul) just across the highway to come over so we will open access to them so they will have access, but also access to behavioral health care, case management, transportation, and a variety of traditional services beyond what had been previously offered,” Werth said. “The last big change is they were cash-only, and so we are able to provide access for people with Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and self-pay. We are hoping a lot more people will be eligible, and our sliding fee scale is lower than theirs, so we think that will help as well.”
Werth said the other exciting development was last year the school district approached Tri-Area about the possibility of establishing a school-based clinic. New construction and renovation plans at Carroll County High School includes approximately 700 feet for a medical clinic area. He said the goal is to open the onsite high school clinic August 1, which will also provide telehealth for the other nine schools in the Carroll system.
”So we will have a nurse practitioner, a nurse, then a counselor in person there at the high school. Then the school nurses will be the telehealth people out in the others schools,” Werth said. “The student service staff will help with the behavioral health appointments at other schools.”
The Tri-Area CEO said the organization has also hired a behavioral health educator/outreach worker and has advertised for a second for purposes of training, parent education, community work, and working with first responders.
”We’re hoping to provide both direct services as well as education and outreach in the school system,” Werth said. “We have the clinic in Cana right across the street. And everybody else, if they wanted to, could come to the high school or to Laurel Fork, for example, if they wanted direct access to care. There will also be access to psychiatric service, telehealth at the high school and other schools as well.”
The newest collaboration includes food, Werth said, with Tri-Area becoming just one of eight health centers across the country to be involved in an innovation project related to food access and healthy food.
”Our project proposal was to collaborate with the school to do a cross-generational activity with high school students and other adults with diabetes around healthy eating and preparing foods,” Werth said. “We still have to work out some of the details, but the idea is to use their off-campus building for some demonstration equipment video and perhaps recipe prep to provide access for the older adults with diabetes as well as students, and hopefully promote healthy eating.”
Also of interest, Werth told supervisors, is Tri-Area’s mobile units in a collaboration with the University of Virginia. The university has submitted a grant for the equipment and Tri-Area provides the coach, which will provide access across Carroll County, Galax and the other four counties in Tri-Area’s service area.
”So the idea would be the coach would be at a different place every day to provide access to people, whether at the high school or Cana, Laurel Fork, Meadows of Dan, or wherever,” Werth said. “That’s a quick overview of the kinds of things we are doing in Carroll County with remote access and in collaboration and addition to our facility and pharmacy in Laurel Fork.”
Fancy Gap District Supervisor Ronnie Collins asked Werth to elaborate on what Tri-Area can provide that school nurses don’t currently. Werth said school nurses right now are RNs “so they can say there is something happening here but they have to refer the patient to a licensed medical professional in order to determine if it is strep throat, sprained ankle, etc.”
”So right now what has to happen is that parent or guardian would have to take that student out of school and get access to an appointment somewhere in urgent care or a hospital or pediatrician, and potentially come back. So we would lose most of that day of classes,” Werth said. “Ideally, what would happen here is that student would go, the nurse would say something is happening here, contact the parent or guardian. Then they would have the release already signed with us and they would just walk over to the clinic or walk to a school nurse at an outlying school, get connected, and our nurse practitioner would be able to determine right there if they need to stay in school. So they would lose 45 minutes of class time as opposed to a full day. Or if they need to go home, then they would still go home for their own protection or for others. It would be the same thing in other schools. The nurse would present to the nurse practitioner at the high school and they would make a determination. We have the equipment ability to see in their ear, throat, hear their chest, see if there is something on the skin. So it is not the same as in person, but there is a lot more the nurse practitioner can do with those outlying schools as well. Same thing with counseling. The student would go through student services instead of having to go to Mount Rogers.”
Collins thanked Werth, noting it is a huge benefit for students and for parents not having to leave work. Werth said the partnership with Carroll Schools gives 4,200 students and staff access to immediate health care every day.
Allen Worrell can be reached at (276) 779-4062 or on X@AWorrellTCN
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