It’s a medical appointment day for 11-year-old Jimmy Isenhower. Nothing serious, just a normal round of shots or maybe a check on a nagging cold for the sixth grader. But while the appointment is routine, it’s far from an easy commute from his school just outside of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to the on-base clinic. 

“Our base is split by a major highway with lots of traffic, which ends up taking a lot of time to get to an appointment,” said Jimmy’s dad, Army Col. Jim Isenhower, a brigade commander at the base.

Officials at Madigan Army Medical Center believe they have the solution for parents and students frustrated by traffic and missed time at school and work: School Based Health Centers. It’s an initiative that has Madigan sending a provider and nurse team to seven area middle and high schools one day each week to take care of routine appointments and health issues that might pop up after the military beneficiaries arrive at school. 

“This program helps families who are often already spread thin due to long work hours, training or deployments,” said Army Lt. Col. Keith Lemmon, the deputy chief of primary care at Madigan. “Our School Based Health System empowers us to be more proactive rather than reactive to our patients’ needs.” 

Lemmon added parents or students are able to book routine or same-day appointments through the Tricare Regional Appointment Center. Students are not called out of class until the care team is ready for them, cutting what used to be a half-day process to a much more efficient 15-20 minutes. In essence, “The classroom is the waiting room,” said Lemmon. 

In addition, students who develop a health-related issue after they’re already at school could use the in-school clinics for unscheduled appointments. Parents are always welcome to attend the school appointments; however, the care team always notifies parents of the outcome of the visit if parents are not able to be there. Each clinic also has a small pharmacy with medications most commonly used in the school-based setting. Limited lab samples can be collected and transported back to the hospital when needed and limited point-of-care testing, such as strep throat screening and urinalysis, can be done at the schools. 

Madigan officials said students are more comfortable in the familiar surroundings and often more open about more sensitive adolescent issues, such as behavioral or emotional health concerns, bullying, substance use and other risk-taking behaviors. 

One of the most time-saving features of the School Based Health Centers is the ability to administer vaccines. With the increasing number of vaccines needed for adolescents, such as the three-dose HPV vaccine, 16-year-old meningitis booster and annual flu vaccination, allowing kids to receive these in school greatly increases compliance rates. 

But do students really want to spend more of their time in the classroom, rather than being able to skip out for half a day?

“When you get into middle school and have this much work to do, I’d rather stay in school and get things done,” said Jimmy. “Plus, it’s much, much easier, the staff is really nice, and I don’t have to sit in the car for a boring drive on the way to an appointment.” 

Lemmon said the program has been well received by school districts, parents, students and the health teams assigned to this mission. Other Army installations are looking at the model to consider implementation at their local hospitals and clinics. A grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics got the program started at Madigan, while sustaining funding has come from U.S. Army Medical Command’s System for Health incentive program. 

Both Isenhowers, father and son, appreciate the focus on customers brought along by the care providers, including follow-up calls to the parents. 

“It makes our lives so much easier in terms of managing valuable time,” said the elder Isenhower. “We really benefit from winning back some time and being able to do other things also important to us. It helps us take care of the routine things more routinely and keeps our children in school.”