LAURINBURG — Scotland County Health Department said it is continuing to look at ways to move its services beyond its offices to reach more people.

Health Director Kristen Patterson told the Board of Health that the department has applied for a Blue Cross Blue Shield $100,000 grant to help establish a health clinic at Scotland High School.

Health department officials visited similar school clinics in Montgomery County.

“They have a school health-based clinic and a dental-based clinic,” Patterson said. “We visited both … however, what we’re trying to do here is a health-based clinic.”

The clinics are staffed with a medical office assistant, nutritionist, family nurse practitioner, and a nurse and provide immunizations that students may have missed, handle sick visits such as testing for strep and flu, give medication − with parent’s permission, and offer mental health assessments.

Though the health center would be located at the high school, it would be open to other students in the county.

“We want to base it at the high school since that is the center part of town, but the way Montgomery had theirs both were at the middle schools, and they received grant money to buy vehicles so they were able to transport students.”

The clinic would be established with the Blue Cross Blue Shield grant and funded by other grant monies in the future, according to Patterson. It would cost an estimated $200,000 a year to maintain.

In other business, the health board approved pricing for a list of birth control that will now be offered at the department and other treatments and medications and price changes for some medications.

Board members also heard that the department is both performing and underperforming financially during the report from Tim Martin, fiscal management director.

For this point, eight months into the budget year, the department should have spent 68 percent of its budget. It has spent 62.1 percent coming in at five percent under budget on expenditures.

The health department still struggles in the area of revenue collection for several reasons. Eight months in, collections should have been at 66 percent, but stands at 47 percent.

Part of the problem comes down the state’s process of approving new staff at the department.

“Due to our new provider we’ve had some issues getting her credentials with Medicaid; NC Tracks is taking a long time [approving her application]. Billing today gave me a piece of paper showing that we have $18,000 in claims for Medicaid sitting there, so as soon as she gets approved for Medicaid that $18,000 should be coming in pretty quickly,” Martin said.

That amount is only part of the reason the department is still behind on collections. Another piece of the puzzle is in part attributable to maternal and child health being without care providers.

“We didn’t have a maternity program; it did not start back until February, and child health we do not have a program at all at this time,” Martin said. “If you look at child health it was projected at about $40,000 worth of revenue and maternal health probably around 60 or $70,000. We’re not going to be able to collect that money because we did not have those programs operating.”

Though the maternity clinic is once again operating, collection will be slow because Medicaid does not pay out until the child has been delivered.

A bright note for collections, is the Labs-to-Go program that offers walk-in and referrals for patients to have lab work done as a cheaper alternative to other providers.

Since the service began last fall, the clinic has seen 95 patients at a rate of up to 5 or 6 a day and many of the questions asked at outreach events have been about the program according to Health Department staff who attended the meeting.

By Beth Lawrence

Staff reporter

Reach Beth Lawrence 910-506-3169