Ohio County board approves one-year MOU with hospital to open Madison school-based health clinic, 4–1

The Ohio County Board of Education voted 4–1 on Nov. 12 to accept a memorandum of understanding with Wheeling Hospital/WVU Medicine to establish a school-based health clinic and separate dental services space at Madison Elementary.

Board members and hospital representatives described the clinic as an eight-hour-per-week school-based health center staffed by nurse practitioners with physician oversight, an on-call triage system and pediatric backup, and a separate dental waiting area that will require ADA improvements. Hospital representatives said the clinic will bill insurance or Medicaid when available and use charity care for uninsured patients; they also said MyChart access will be provided for records viewing, subject to legal limits.

Board members said the policy language needed clearer distinctions between parental consent to treatment and parental access to medical records. One board member repeatedly pressed whether parents would retain access to records if a student denies parental access via MyChart, and hospital staff said records may still be available through the hospital’s record request process even if a patient limits MyChart access. Hospital representatives said many health systems in the state have informally been using age 13 as a practical cutoff for parental portal access to MyChart, but they warned the state has not legislatively defined a firm age and that legal exceptions (emancipated or mature minors, certain diagnoses and treatments) remain governed by state statute.

Hospital staff also outlined the staffing model and services, saying nurse practitioners (who in West Virginia may practice with collaborative arrangements) would provide a higher level of clinical care than a school nurse and could prescribe non-controlled medications; controlled substances would not be provided at the clinic. On billing, a hospital representative noted the hospital absorbs underpayments from Medicaid and that the hospital works with families to obtain coverage; the representative said, by way of example, that Medicaid underpayments at the hospital totaled about $38 million last year. Board members asked for clarification in the policy language about co-pay responsibility and billing procedures.

The motion to accept the MOU and recommend the school-based health-care and dental-clinic policy as amended was moved (transcript: “Mister Gerber has moved”) and seconded. After further discussion emphasizing parental involvement and a desire for legislative guardrails, the board approved the motion by voice vote (4–1). The board directed administration to finalize the policy language to more sharply distinguish consent to treatment from access to records and to return for any further necessary amendments.

The MOU as discussed in the meeting was described by staff as a one-year agreement with a likely renewal process, and the board signaled it expects periodic review and possible amendments to the policy as the program is implemented.

The board’s approval advances the clinic planning steps — construction measurements, state review of prints and hiring of clinical staff — but the timeline to begin seeing students depends on state approvals and construction scheduling. Hospital and district staff said they would continue to refine consent language and operational details in the coming weeks.