YOUNGSTOWN — Through a partnership between the Youngstown City School District and Quickmed Urgent Care Clinic, district students and their families will have access to full-service medical care in their school buildings.

“Our first YOUCare Quickmed Clinics will open in November at East and Chaney high schools,” school district CEO Justin Jennings said. “The goal is to have clinics in all of our schools. This is a great partnership and it will bring medical services to our scholars, their families, our staff and the community right at school.”

While students are learning remotely, the clinics will be open and available for students, families, staff and the community. The clinics will offer annual wellness visits, vaccinations, state-mandated vision / hearing screenings; diagnostic testing for illnesses including the flu, COVID-19 and strep throat; referrals to specialty physicians and other services.

The effort is being funded initially with wellness funds that come through the governor’s office.

Hours of operation will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays.

Dr. Lena Esmail, Quickmed chief executive officer, said the city schools and Quickmed are redefining the delivery of community medicine by giving access to care to students, families and staff within unified school campus urgent care and wellness clinics.

“Mr. Jennings is a forward thinker who dared to think out of the traditional healthcare box to bring a much-needed service to his scholars,” she said

She worked with Jennings and schools nursing Director Kenyetta Burr on developing a comprehensive solution for the improvement of absenteeism, vaccination compliance, health and wellness education, routine visits and acute illness and injury treatment.

“The basic foundation of school nursing care and education is being strengthened with year-round access to a provider to evaluate and treat — essentially completing the circle of care for a population that needs it most,” Esmail said.

Burr said health and education go hand-in-hand.

“In order for our scholars to learn, they must first be healthy,” she said. “We are finding that sometimes the school nurse is the only source of medical care for some of our scholars. Many of our families work multiple jobs and do not always have the luxury of taking off work whenever their child is having a minor health issue. By having these clinics on-site, we will be able to service our scholars while they are in school, taking a huge burden off of the parents. This was much needed in the district and long overdue.”

Quickmed accepts most forms of insurance.