Two local school districts are looking for new nursing
services as a substitute to what Wood County aims to discontinue
offering.
School district administrators of Nekoosa and Pittsville are digging into
nursing alternatives for next school year, including checking out whether some
local hospitals in Wood County or a regional
cooperative organization could fill the void. Late in 2010, county Health
Department Director Sue Kunferman advised leaders from several local parochial
and public school districts that present nursing services offered by the county
would be stopped due to financial obligation concerns.
Kunferman met up with Superintendent Wayne Johnson of Nekoosa and
Superintendent Terry Reynolds of Pittsville on Tuesday to find out how those
school districts are moving forward.
"We're meeting with representatives from Riverview Hospital (this) week and anticipate speaking with Aspirus," Johnson said.
"We're trying to gather information; it's all in the works."
Johnson said the district also could check out contracting with the
Cooperative Educational Service Agency 5, a regional cooperative effort of 35
school districts to bring down expenditures for an assortment of services. The
superintendent said he hopes to have a solution for the Nekoosa School District
within the next 45 days. The district is getting 6.5 hours of nursing services
a week from the county.
Services offered by Wood County include assisting
school officials with needed medical paperwork and training school personnel in
how to deliver medications and execute basic processes. Health officials are worried
the training indicates liability issues for the county.
In other areas, nurses came back to keep an eye on the school employees wrongly
executing previously trained procedures, Kunferman said previously.
The present arrangement between the school districts and the county runs until the summer school programs in early August.
Reynolds, whose district obtains three hours a week of services, did not
return phone calls looking for comment last week. Kunferman said Reynolds is exploring
the situation.
The school administrators also requested Kunferman to make a proposal that
would comprise of one county nurse splitting time between the two school
districts, but Kunferman is unsure about
that idea.