Nurse Emme Moore started working at Paoli Community Schools in 2019, right before the pandemic began. Moore was excited to be able to treat children and work with the staff here at Paoli.

Unfortunately, the pandemic changed everything and she has only been dealing with Covid-19 cases since.

“Covid-19 has been our primary focus and other health needs have taken a backseat,” said Moore.

However, Moore has been planning to start a school based Health Clinic which will be right here on campus. Moore and her staff will be able to examine students at school and have virtual meetings with other health care providers. This program is a collaboration with Southern Indiana Community Health Care (SICHC). The providers who will do the telehealth visits will be from the SICHC offices in Paoli and English.

“Parent consent will be required. We plan to have a built in consent in Harmony that parents can sign when enrolling their student each school year. However, each time that a student with a signed consent meets criteria for a telehealth visit, a parent will be contacted to ensure that they want their child to have a telehealth visit for this particular illness, injury, occurrence and to see if the parent would like to be included in the telehealth appointment via video or phone conferencing,” said Moore.

This program, scheduled to start March 7, will be no cost to the school because of the grant SICHC received for this program.

The equipment and diagnostic testing supplies will be provided. Students and families will not be billed for these visits and all are eligible regardless of insurance coverage.

Moore also plans on restarting a school health advisory committee. She plans for this committee to have meetings with students and staff discussing health policies. Moore has lots planned to improve our school and she’s focused on making sure students are the main priority.

“I have lots of compassion when it comes to children and I love knowing that I was able to help at least one person feel better,” said Moore.