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Waipahu High School on Wednesday opened the Academic Health Center, the first school-based health clinic in the nation. The Academic Health Center represents a partnership between the state Department of Education and Hawaii Pacific Health to provide high school students with hands-on training from medical professionals while providing health care services to the community.
Waipahu High School will provide the facility in an 1,870-square-foot center with four exam rooms and one treatment room, and Hawaii Pacific Health will provide facilities with one nurse practitioner, two primary care physicians, and two obstetricians and gynecologists. We provide services.
In the coming months, before becoming fully operational in the summer, the clinic will be open Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m., weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon. do. Services are provided to the community by appointment only.
Waipahu High School Principal Zachary Sheets said, “Local residents will be able to register Waipahu High School as a clinic, and high school students will be able to study medicine with a doctor in attendance.''
Of the 2,500 students attending Waipahu High School, 500 are enrolled in health science courses, including nursing services, diagnostic services, medical biotechnology, and human performance and kinesiology, Sheets said.
Among other things, students at HPH will receive training in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects patient confidentiality, Sheets said.
“When you look at this clinic, it's important to make sure we have ready talent, especially in the health care industry, where there is a great need,” Sheets said in his speech. “We benefit our students, the state of Hawaii, and the community of Waipahu. That's what education is all about.”
Karl Hinson, HPH's director of human resources, said students will also have the opportunity to work as medical assistants and patient service representatives, or clinic receptionists.
Hinson said field doctors and staff spend 30 percent of their time helping teachers create authentic curriculum for students. They also participate in teaching students in the classroom.
“This program was born out of a mutual vision (with HPH) to keep students in Hawaii and ensure we have future employees in industries that need them,” Sheets said.
Sheets said the program has been in the works for four years between Waipahu High School, the Department of Energy and HPH.
With the opening of the clinic, Sheetz hopes to promote health care in public education and allow the state to support local students with needs in the health care field.
DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi, a former Waipahu High School principal, aims to reduce the state's “brain drain” through the program.
“We have so much talent here in Hawaii, and we want the best and brightest to stay home,” Hayashi said. “Whether it's health care or IT, when we take on these kinds of initiatives, we help students graduate, pursue what they want to pursue, get living wage jobs and stay home. It will be more reliable.”
Hayashi will work on more projects alongside academic health centers within the K-12 system to increase opportunities for students and build pathways to better education and workforce development. He said he was looking forward to it.
“It is important that this is a first in the country because it shows that it is possible and that together we can provide our students with excellent opportunities for workforce development.” Professor Hayashi said.
Waipahu High School senior Carlo Goez emphasized the importance of the clinic opening for health science students like him, saying it provides an additional perspective on their learning. .
“In the near future, we will see 14- and 15-year-olds working with nurses, dentists, therapists, radiologists, and others to dedicate themselves to providing health in the communities in which they grew up. “Maybe,” Goez said in his speech.
