Noblesville Schools announced on Tuesday that it has chosen Community Health as its exclusive partner for all district health services including school nursing, mental health and counseling, sports medicine and the employee health clinic. Previously the district’s health services were provided by Riverview Health and Community Health jointly through an agreement between the two systems.
Niedermeyer
“We have the utmost respect and appreciation for Riverview Health and the outstanding care they have provided Noblesville Schools students and employees over the years,” said Noblesville Schools Superintendent Dr. Beth Niedermeyer. “As we move to increase our mental health and counseling resources, and align them with our current medical offerings, Community Health is best positioned to meet our needs across that full continuum of care. We look forward to building on our successful past relationship with Community as we expand into this exclusive partnership that will bring significantly increased mental health and counseling resources to our students and staff.”
“We are committed to the health and well-being of the communities we serve,” said Bryan Mills, president and CEO of Community Health Network. “Schools are a vital part of those communities. We consider it a privilege and a special responsibility to be invited into the schools to provide care for students, teachers, staff and families. As someone who calls Noblesville home, I am especially delighted to begin this new partnership with Noblesville Schools.”
President and CEO of Riverview Health Seth Warren said, “We’ve been proud to partner with Noblesville Schools and will continue to support them in any way we can. But we understand that Community Health Network excels in the behavioral health arena and that continuing to share the contract with Community could lead to fragmented care and limit the behavioral care providers’ abilities to have an entire clinical picture of the student/staff member.”
Bryan Mills, President and CEO of Community Health Network spoke at Tuesday’s announcement. (Reporter photo by Jeff Jellison)
The district has worked to secure agreement from the parties on a plan regarding the future status of school nurses, who are Riverview Health employees embedded as Noblesville Schools staff in all schools.
“Our school nurses are a valued part of our school community and are serving us very well,” said Niedermeyer. “We hope to retain current staff through their transition from Riverview to Community employees.”
The Noblesville Schools Board of Trustees adopted the Community Health resolution and is expected to adopt the contract in the next few months. The district plans to have Community Health resources in place by July 2019 for the start of the 2019-2020 school year. Riverview Health will continue to manage sports medicine for Noblesville Schools through July 2020.