Peach County Schools benefiting from virtual medical visits

Peach County students and staff don't have to go far for their medical needs.

FORT VALLEY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Peach County students and staff don’t have to go far for their medical needs.

That’s because Atrium Health Navicent has partnered with the school district to provide virtual visits.

The school district is providing meetings with a doctor through a secure link.

“It just works wonders, and it kept me from having to leave my job to seek medical assistance away from the school and my principal having to find coverage for my classes,” teacher Joy Felton said.

So far, 30 teachers and students have benefited. Felton says the process is simple.

“We go through everything from demographics to clinical verification,” Felton said. “Everything was quick. If I had questions, they were able to answer my questions, and everything was just quick.”

Atrium Health Navicent President and CEO Delvecchio Finley says the Peach County School District is the first to use this secure link to be connected to a doctor.

Parents can also participate.

“They can log in through our secure network and participate in the visit so that they’re interacting jointly with their kid and the provider,” Finley said. “Basically we’re recreating this setting where a parent and a child is in an exam room virtually as they would be if they came into a clinic setting.”

Peach County High School Nurse Lisa Champion sees about 50 students a day.

“Students that I see like every day or two or three times a day, they come in and say, ‘Oh, I still got a headache,’ or they’re running a fever, or, ‘I’ve still got the stomach ache.'”

Champion says the virtual visits help keep students in schools. It also helps those who might not have transportation.

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