2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

328896
Strategies to Sustaining School-Based Health Centers: A Five Year Perspective


Monday, November 2, 2015 : 12:50 p.m. - 1:10 p.m.

Marsha Broussard, DrPH, School Health Connection, Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Kristie Bardell, MPH, Family Health, Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Guenevere Hoy, MPH, School Health Connection, Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
  
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
The School Health Connection (SHC) program, a program of the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI), aims to improve the health status of students by increasing access to quality health and well-being through supporting school-based health centers (SBHC) and other school wellness programs. SBHCs are clinics that provide a holistic approach to integrating primary care, behavioral and mental health services on campus. The SHC program strived to expand the development of new SBHC capacity in the Greater New Orleans area from 2009 to present with the purpose of gaining operational stability.  Sustainability has proven to be a challenge requiring both improvements in organizational efficiency as well as restructuring the governance and operations of SBHCs. Primary sustainability goals were to improve quality, increase billing, and initiate new innovative operational and governance strategies, particularly focusing on adoption of SBHCs by Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs).

This session will present strategies used by SHC to have FQHCs successfully adopt SBHCs, including partnership development, buy-in from FQHCs, funding and staffing transitions, increasing revenue and securing external funding and support. Successes, challenges and lessons learned will be examined to determine the effectiveness of SBHCs when operated by FQHCs.  Reflections of SBHC sustainability efforts over the last five years will be shared as well as recommended strategies to begin the operational transition of SBHCs to sustainable models.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education

Learning Objectives:
Discuss methods to transfer operation and sponsorship of school-based health centers to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) Assess methods to ensure continuity and expansion of services provided to students, in addition to a comprehensive referral mechanism to community clinics Compare university operated school-based health centers to centers operated by federally qualified health centers Identify barriers to transitioning operation of a school-based health center to a FQHC Describe strategies for sustaining school health centers and increasing revenue

Keyword(s): Adolescents, Sustainability

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal or co-principal of multiple grants focusing on school health and adolescent health. I have more than 15 years of program planning and research experience on the health of children and adolescents.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3289.0: Improving Children's Health through School Based Health Centers