NEW RICHMOND, Ohio — Cincinnati Children’s is collaborating with New Richmond Schools to open a campus health center, aiming to provide easier access to health care for more than 1,000 students in the district.
The health center will be located at New Richmond Middle School on Bethel-New Richmond Road, near the high school, making it accessible for older students who can walk to the facility. New Richmond is a rural community in Clermont County, east of Cincinnati, where about one-third of students lack a primary care provider, according to the school district.
“We feel very fortunate to be collaborating with the premier organization in the country for providing child health care,” Jill Hollandsworth, interim superintendent of the New Richmond Exempted Village School District, said in a press release. “Working together, a badly needed service is going to be provided for our students and parents. Accessible, high-quality health care is key to developing healthy children. This is a tremendous opportunity for our community.”
The health center will offer a range of services, including care for sick students, prescriptions, management of chronic health conditions, preventive oral health care, immunizations, medical testing and referrals for specialty care.
Cincinnati Children’s will work closely with school district staff, including the school nurse, psychologist, and guidance counselors, to address students' developmental and mental health needs.
According to the health system, the collaboration aims to reduce unnecessary emergency department visits and hospital admissions, which can disrupt students’ instructional time and lead to missed school days.
“Our health system has decades of experience operating school-based health centers, including several locations in the city of Cincinnati,” Evaline Alessandrini, chief operating officer of Cincinnati Children’s, said in a news release. “The school-based model has shown evidence of improving both health and educational outcomes while reducing student absenteeism.”
Alessandrini added that the New Richmond health center will also be available to other children in the community, including newborns.
Renovation work will soon begin on 1,400 square feet of storage space at New Richmond Middle School to create the health center. The facility will include a patient reception area with access from both inside and outside the school building, an intake room, three examination rooms, a lab, a bathroom and a storage room for equipment and supplies.
Several Cincinnati Children’s staff members will work at the health center, including a nurse practitioner and a medical assistant.
The health center is scheduled to open during the 2025-2026 school year.
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