As part of Pattonville’s continued Connection to Health and Healing partnership with SSM Health DePaul Hospital, families in the Pattonville School District can schedule an appointment at IFM’s Community Connections Health Clinic. The clinic, located in Bridgeton, opened this month and is available to all district residents. Services include primary care, wellness exams, women’s health, sick visits, sports physicals, immunizations, medication management, Medicaid enrollment and utility assistance.
“We are thrilled that families within our community will now have access to free quality healthcare through the opening of the Community Connections Health Clinic,” said Pattonville lead nurse Michael Wilhite, RN, BSN. “Keeping our students and families healthy is a top priority for our district team. In addition to the healthcare provided by our district nursing team, the preventative care and medical assistance they will receive from Dr. Campbell and his team will help our students remain healthy, remain in school, and grow and develop physically and emotionally.”
The clinic employs family medicine and women’s health nurse practitioners with supervision by physicians. The clinic is located at 11280 St. Charles Rock Road, St. Louis, MO 63044. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call (314) 546-4321.
In addition to the newly opened clinic, Pattonville’s partnership with IFM also includes physicians and nurse practitioners who visit each school in the district weekly to offer physicals and evaluation of acute health problems to students with parent permission. Such evaluations may include upper respiratory symptoms, headaches, ear aches, rashes and abdominal pain. Additionally, in cases of chronic illnesses like asthma or diabetes, nurse practitioners can work with the child’s primary physician to extend care. If the child does not have a primary care physician, the nurse practitioner can initiate or modify the treatment plan. Families are informed when their child is seen, and no treatments, including vaccines, will be administered without express parental consent. Families must fill out and return a consent form to participate. The program is not intended to replace the role of a child’s primary care physician, but to work collaboratively to make care more convenient. In the fall, IFM provided flu shots to students across the district. Parents and guardians were able to sign their child up and complete a release allowing them to receive the flu shot.
Pattonville and IFM’s partnership began in fall of 2021 as part of a $5.3 million grant that was awarded to SSM DePaul Hospital, SSM Health Foundation and IFM Community Medicine by the Bridgeton Landfill Community Project Fund, which is administered by the St. Louis Community Foundation. IFM Community Medicine is a not-for-profit healthcare organization that partners with over a dozen school districts in the St. Louis city and county area. The goal of the program is to help reduce absenteeism and support the wellness of students in the district.
To learn more about available services, visit https://bit.ly/School-BasedHealth.