Is Sen. Zay inviting primary care clinics into schools?

I think we all can agree that primary care clinics do not belong in schools and create a dangerous environment conducive to removing parents from medical decisions for their children.
 
The fact is, that this is an existing problem and danger to students.
 
Those in the medical liberty movement agree that clinics are dangerous, but how to handle them is contested.
 
Some claim that Zay’s bill, SB272, places “guardrails” on existing clinics and is needed.
 
H4ML and Purple for Parents- Indiana disagree. Reading SB 272 reveals greater risks and the creation of MORE battles to fight in the future. Zay’s bill is not a solution, but a catalyst for concern.

You, as a constituent, need to discern if the bureaucracy of guardrails are what Hoosiers need, or if we need to stop clinics from merging with schools.

Indiana's public schools are struggling to serve their intended purpose as test scores in math & reading plummet. Adding an additional responsibility and service line should NOT even be considered.
 
Currently, schools have difficulty employing enough school nurses. There is also an industry-wide shortage of medical professionals. School clinics will only complicate these issues.
 
How long before shortages will be used to eliminate school nurses all together, and force the presence of school clinics?
 
Will clinics start to recruit the school nurses and exacerbate shortages? Will school nurses be “shared” or “dual” employees of both clinics and schools? If so, how will this division of service be made? This creates a whole mess of issues with liability and scope of practice.
 
 
Zay's bill only requires school nurses to perform essential functions of first aid and emergency care, eliminating many of the functions they play. This could be seen as preventing duplicity of care, however,  it may also create an incentive to shift care from the school nurse to the clinic.
 
 
If school nurses no longer provide diabetic care or tube feeds for students due to the changes proposed in this bill and the presence of a clinic, will families face undue burden of co-pays and the need to be present for DAILY care? Will this "unforeseen dilemma" create the "need" to remove the requirement of parental presence for treatment at the clinic?
 
We know, malicious groups seek to use school clinics as a tool to remove parental rights, consent practices, and medical liberty. The presence of these clinics on or near schools is to increase convenience for the parents.

The argument for convenience will be made when attempting to remove the requirement of parental presence at the time of care.

If clinics near schools were truly advantageous why is the private sector not capitalizing on the opportunity? Wouldn't you see pediatrician offices popping up near schools?
 
Private sector entities might be hesitant to enter into school clinics because of the complexity of liability. Courts and governing bodies already struggle to define where liability falls for hospital systems with contracted physicians. This issue will carry over to school based clinics and open the state up to additional concerns with liability lawsuits in areas that they have never experienced.
 
The legislature has taken a keen interest in directing healthcare for Hoosiers. Last year Indiana invested $178 million in tax payer dollars in the name of increasing public health programs and bolster state services. Instituting school clinics is duplicitous, may create additional burden on the limited number of medical professionals available, and jeopardizes medical liberty.
 
Yet, another potential issue is that school clinics could potentially make a monopoly driving competition out of rural communities exacerbating existing shortages of local providers.
 
We can never simply look at the problems of yesterday and today. We must always consider the problems of tomorrow. We must be sure that our legislators are not promoting emotional legislation that ultimately creates more problems than they solve.
 
We all agree, primary care does not belong in our schools. Do we want to risk the additional issues outlined above to simply put “guardrails” on school clinics that should be bound by consent laws?

Perhaps we should address the issues in the schools with existing clinics and prevent these problems from spreading.

Call Sen. Zay 317-234-9441

Tell him, “Schools must focus on education, not medicine. Keep clinics out of schools, kill SB272.“