Starting in the upcoming school year, the Caldwell School District will offer mobile pediatric healthcare to its students up to the age of 18. A St. Luke’s Children’s Mobile Care clinic will rotate between four elementary schools: Lewis and Clark, Sacajawea, Washington and Wilson. It’s part of a broader effort to improve healthcare access for families.
All Caldwell students and preschool-aged siblings can receive care at the clinic, regardless of insurance status. Paul Webster is the Community School Coordinator for Lewis and Clark Elementary. He said barriers to healthcare impact students’ well-being, attendance and academic success.
“No one will be turned away because of their inability to pay and so they'll take all insurances; they'll take Medicaid, but they will also take a family who's uninsured and set up a payment plan or just figure things out,” Webster said.
To maintain the privacy of students, all medical services, records and billings will be handled by St. Luke’s, not the schools.
The mobile clinic will offer free immunizations. Other services will be billed through insurance and families without coverage can receive financial aid.
The school district reports 58% of students’ families face financial hardship.
St. Luke’s Mobile Care pediatrician, Noreen Womack, MD, said more than 33% of the clinic’s services address children’s mental health needs.
“We didn't know that going in, but we all know that there's been an increase in the incidence of anxiety, depression, and not just in teenagers, but pre-teens as well and we've certainly seen that in our clinics.”
St. Luke’s also provides individual counseling to students at certain schools. The U.S. Census Bureau reports 27.7% of households in Caldwell are non-English speaking.
“We also have language services in our clinic and so really any language that we need, we have both video and phone language lines set up,” said Womack.
United For ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed), a United Way project, reports 48% of total households in Canyon County do not have enough resources to meet basic needs, including housing and healthcare.
