Published: Friday, Oct. 30, 2009
Nonprofit clinics may be on campuses
Through a partnership approved by the school board, services wouldn’t cost district
Comments (0) | 
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeStudents at three South County high schools might have access to routine medical services on campus starting in January as part of a partnership between a local chain of nonprofit clinics and the Lucia Mar district.
Under a deal approved by the school board in June, Community Health Centers of the Central Coast will provide health care services at Arroyo Grande, Nipomo and Lopez high schools at no charge to the Lucia Mar Unified School District.
The services would include a nurse practitioner who would perform health exams, immunizations, treatment for minor injuries and physicals. A nutritionist would also be available for diabetes education and weight management groups, according to district Nurse Linda Hogoboom.
Services were originally scheduled to start this fall, but school district officials were unable to get on-site clinics launched before the start of the academic year.
They hope to have CHC services available by January.
Hogoboom said that Lucia Mar is looking to have a licensed social worker who could provide counseling and possibly a mobile dental clinic.
The health center services would be separate from an on-site school nurse, Hogoboom said. She described CHC as being a complement to the school nurse’s office by taking on primary care services.
The services would require parent permission slips to bill private insurance or other health coverage such as Healthy Families or Medi-Cal, Hogoboom said.
It’s unclear at this point whether any student would be turned away for services even if he or she did not have some type of health coverage or ability to pay.
John Kahn, medical director at CHC, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The county Board of Supervisors in August cut $1.4 million in funding for the CHC, which resulted in limited access and eliminated weekend hours at two locations.
Supervisors reduced its funding to CHC to $3.4 million from $4.8 million. The move was designed to help offset a looming $6.1 million reduction facing the county’s Health Agency.
What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
- Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
- Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
- Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
- Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
- Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
- Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
- Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
- Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.