Health Clinic to re-open at Southwest

Article in Southwest Journal
By Dylan Thomas

Southwest to get new on-campus clinic

LINDEN HILLS — After its previous clinic closed suddenly in 2008, Southwest High School will again have an on-campus clinic this school year.

A plan to expand Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support-operated school-based clinic services to Southwest was approved July 20 by the School Board. The city department runs clinics at the sites of six of the district’s high school programs.

Southwest has gone without a clinic since June 2008, when Teenage Medical Services [TAMS], the adolescent outpatient health service of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, shuttered the independent operation. In a written statement released at the time, Children’s Hospitals cited “financial challenges” as the reason for closing.

“They just pulled out,” recalled Mary Heiman, the district’s nursing service manager, who added there was little advance warning of the decision.

Heiman said the school-based clinics are a convenient option for students, who don’t have to leave campus for routine exams like sports physicals. TAMS clinic staff also could make health diagnoses, prescribe medication, administer immunizations and provide other health care services.

Statistics provided by the district after the 2008 closing of Southwest’s TAMS clinic indicated about half the students who used the service in the previous year were uninsured or underinsured. When TAMS pulled out, it left Southwest as the only one of the city’s seven traditional high schools without a school-based clinic.

Heiman said the licensed school nurse at Southwest often referred students needing clinical services to a TAMS site at 2425 Chicago Ave. S. during the interim. Some uninsured students sought care at other community-based clinics with a sliding-scale pay system, she added.

Heiman said it was difficult to judge the impact on Southwest students’ health. Still, it was reasonable to assume some students missed out on scheduled immunizations, follow-up visits and other types of routine care, she said.

The district’s amended lease agreement with the Department of Health and Family Support will shift one of its six school-based clinics from Broadway High School to Southwest. Broadway, located at 1250 W. Broadway Ave., was home to the district’s Teenage Pregnant and Parenting Program, or TAPPP.

The School Board in May voted to build a new district headquarters on the Broadway site. Next year, TAPPP will relocate to North High School.

Heiman said the new Southwest clinic most likely would open in October. It will re-use the former TAMS clinic space, already outfitted with a waiting area, several exam rooms, offices and a lab, she said.

“It’s a true clinic space,” Heiman said.