The Rock Island County Health Department recently opened a new clinic to help give area students easy access to health services.
The new School Health Link clinic is located inside Moline High School at 3602 Avenue of the Cities, Moline, and is open to All Rock Island County students. It is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Services provided at the new School Health Link include:
- Well child visits.
- School physicals.
- Sports physicals.
- Behavioral health.
- Mental health.
- Counseling referrals.
- Nutrition health education.
- Immunizations.
- Lead screenings.
- STD testing.
- Pregnancy testing.
“The hope is, with the success of this venture, the groundwork will be set up for us to expand into the other districts in our community,” School Health Link Board Chair Scot Meskimen said.
“By partnering with Moline High School, we have increased accessibility of care for hundreds of students. This will allow us to better serve our community and allow for a unique care model,” he added.
The School Health Link is a comprehensive school-linked health clinic with the ability to provide convenient preventive medical care (like vaccines), acute medical care (for health concerns like the flu, strep or ear infections), as well as referrals for children, adolescents, and infants.
“It just makes it far more accessible for the family,” Moline Superintendent Rachel Savage said. “Sometimes, it’s very hard to get an appointment with private medical providers, especially this time of year. So having an additional provider in the community helps those families get those appointments.”
School Health Link works with other medical providers, social service agencies, mental health providers, and other programs and organizations to help students be ready to learn physically, emotionally and mentally.
“Our goal is to provide a medical home for children in need,” Mr. Meskimen said. “We primarily serve patients who are uninsured, underinsured or on Medicaid, but we also take most insurances and will not deny care for services based on a family’s ability to pay.
He added: “By entering the school, we increase the accessibility to care for hundreds of kids. Additionally, by increasing our presence in the schools, we will have the ability to be more proactive with our care.”
