Billy, a Bloomfield middle schooler, watched his weight spike 30 plus pounds. More importantly, the nurse practitioner at school saw it, too.
Using Highmark Healthy High 5 Health eTools for Schools — a secure, Web-based portal for improving student wellness — she was able to document the boy's weight gain and quickly generate the yearly report to Billy's parents on his Body Mass Index (BMI), which is mandated in schools by the Commonwealth.
Some 37 nurse practitioners in 68 Pittsburgh Public Schools plus more than 40 private and parochial schools within the city are using Health eTools for Schools to get the paperwork done much more efficiently, "allowing a lot more on-task time to talk with kids and parents about issues related to health such as a sudden weight loss or gain," explains Janet Yuhasz, M.Ed., the Pittsburgh Public School's student wellness coordinator.
In the Pittsburgh region, nurses at 289 schools are using Health eTools to record student health data more efficiently, freeing up time to address student health concerns.
In Billy's case, his mother, concerned, contacted the nurse practitioner, and together they devised a plan, beginning with a trip to the pediatrician, who diagnosed high blood pressure and pre-diabetes.
"That letter opens up an important dialogue," says Yuhasz. "We worked with him on smaller, more frequent meals, more movement such as walking more places to increase energy output, and he got his weight back into a healthy range."
"Health eTools is making a positive impact. Every change we can make individually for a child, or in the district at large, can make big differences in the health of our youth," Yuhasz says.
Learn more about Highmark Healthy High 5 Health eTools for Schools.
This story was originally published in an April 5, 2009, advertising supplement for Highmark Healthy High 5.