'Eduhealth': Helping schools treat students and staff more efficiently

Telemedicine may be the wave of the future, especially for rural areas.

In July Medicaid will start paying for telehealth services, so Perry County Schools and Primary Care Centers of Eastern Kentucky are teaming up to bring what they are calling "eduhealth" to the school system.

"It's an excellent opportunity for our students many of our students don't have access to make a follow-up visit to the clinic after our school nurse to make a determination to see another provider so it's a service so many of our parents or grandparents won't have to make another trip," said Superintendent of Schools Jonathan Jett.

This service will be operational in every Perry County School for the 2019-'20 school year.

"We think it will improve student and staff attendance," said Jett.

This is not a ploy to bring in more money or a way to bring in more customers, but a way to serve the area better.

"We have six nurses in six of the schools and we're going to provide telehealth services to six of those schools," said Barry Martin, CEO of Primary Care Centers of Eastern Kentucky.

What this will do is take the doctor to the students. It will cut down on making doctors or nurse practitioners require students in hard to reach areas of the county come in for a follow-up that sometimes is close to impossible to do for some.

"We know that there are kids that aren't able to be brought into the clinic so hopefully we will be able to reach more kids and have healthier children in our communities," said Christie Herald, a family nurse practitioner at Primary Care Centers of Eastern Kentucky.

Cassandra Artrip is a school nurse with Primary Care Centers of Eastern Kentucky and believes this will help kids be more interested in getting help and trust people more since they are face to face.