- November 23, 2024
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The Volusia County School Board has renewed its partnership with AdventHealth aimed at addressing student wellness and chronic absenteeism.
On Tuesday, July 30, the School Board voted 3-0 to extend the contract naming the hospital system as the district's "official healthcare champion" through June 30, 2028. School Board members Ruben Colon and Anita Burnette abstained from the vote, as they work for AdventHealth and Halifax Health, respectively.
The partnership was first established in 2018, and since then, AdventHealth has provided 5,200 free sports physicals to students, 4,300 free cardiac screenings, and $12,000 in medical supplies. The contract’s renewal was pulled in February and June of this year as there were concerns that an exclusivity clause takes away opportunities for students with competing hospitals and medical offices.
The contract brought before the board on Tuesday addressed that, outlining that AdventHealth and the school district "do not intend any exclusivity provisions to restrict or interfere with any student’s opportunity for employment, scholarship, or work-based experience even if offered by a competitor healthcare services provider."
David Weis, president and CEO of AdventHealth Daytona Beach and the East Volusia Market, said to the Observer that it was never the hospital's intent to make students feel like they couldn't access those opportunities.
"That was never AdventHealth's position or intention, and we're really just clarifying language to make sure that students have access to any career in healthcare that interests them and intrigues them and gives them an opportunity to best serve this community in the future," Weis said.
The contract amendment, he added, also gives AdventHealth the chance to make more adjustments to better support some of the athlete health programs in the school district. The contract also clarified that there was no prohibition for students to have field trips, guest speakers, clinicals, internships or job-shadowing opportunities with competing health care providers.
The amendment removed a section in the contract regarding e-care and telemedicine services for the 36 schools with the highest rates of chronic absenteeism. Weis said this was expanded to all Volusia County Schools students during the pandemic, but it hasn't been highly utilized post-pandemic.
"If students needed to have access to something like this, we would be happy to help provide that, but we're really trying to clarify within the contractual language that we're trying to do things that we feel will have a more direct noticeable impact for our students and their families," Weis said.
AdventHealth replaced the e-care section of the contract with a clause that it will instead create a health fund of $10,000 at five schools to be used for resources to reduce chronic absenteeism.
Of the 4,300 free cardiac screenings, 11 students were flagged for follow-up care. Three underwent lifesaving procedures, Weis said. One of those was Brogan Kelly, a Seabreeze High School athlete who underwent open heart surgery.
Weis added that 32% of the students AdventHealth screens do not have primary care coverage.
School Board members Jessie Thompson and Carl Persis said they liked that the contract was now clear in its language.
"I think we're in a better place now because it's more clearly understood," said Persis, who is the only board member who was also in office at the time of the 2018 partnership agreement. "That was the problem with the original one."
School Board Chair Jamie Haynes, who voiced her concerns at the June 25 meeting where the contract was pulled for the second time, repeated that she had never seen a contract brought forward that gave one party all the rights to amend. It took away opportunities for students, she said.
Weis told the board this was never the intention for the contract, and Haynes said she appreciated that.
"It's sad to say that it's taken six years to clear up this piece, but I do appreciate that there is more clarity in this new agreement," Haynes said.
