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Families with children in the Volusia County school system are using AdventHealth Video Visits at more than triple the rate they were before COVID-19.
Initially available only to students in 36 schools with the highest rates of chronic absenteeism, AdventHealth and the school district expanded Video Visits to include all Volusia County Schools students when Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a Safer-at-Home order on April 3. Since then, the usage has tripled, with more than 60 families getting free video visits with a health care provider.
“Our Video Visit tool, formerly known as eCare, within the AdventHealth app is like the modern version of a doctor’s house call,” said David Ottati, CEO of AdventHealth operations in Volusia, Flagler and Lake counties. “Through our historic partnership with Volusia County Schools, we have already been providing local schoolchildren with free access to Video Visits to help keep our students healthy and ready to learn. Now that schools are closed and we are all following social-distancing guidelines, we have expanded this service to all Volusia County Schools families.”
“We are very thankful to our partners at AdventHealth for providing 1,500 free Video Visit vouchers for VCS families. School nursing staff are available to answer questions and walk parents through the process,” stated Dr. Scott Fritz, superintendent of Volusia County Schools.
Each voucher is valued at $59, for a total of $88,500 in free health care pledged for VCS students.
When a family calls, a school nurse will ask a few questions to make sure that the student’s symptoms meet the criteria for Video Visits.
Once general symptoms have been determined, the school nurse will provide a free voucher as a benefit of this partnership. Parents can then download the AdventHealth app and, using their personal smartphone or tablet, have a free face-to-face consultation with a board-certified physician or nurse practitioner.
AdventHealth’s Video Visits are offered as part of a five-year, $2 million partnership between AdventHealth and Volusia County Schools.
Through this partnership, AdventHealth strives to address three key issues impacting local schools: 1) career development in the health care industry; 2) student-athlete health; and 3) chronic absenteeism.
