While La Porte Community School Corporation Employee Clinic & Wellness Center had its soft opening in September, Wednesday, Nov. 11 marked the official opening with a ribbon cutting. The clinic was established through a partnership between NorthShore Health Centers and La Porte Community School Corporation.
Superintendent of Schools for La Porte Community School Corporation, Dr. Mark Francesconi, shared that the school corporation has been consistently looking for ways to keep costs down through their insurance provider.
“We knew all along that we wanted to provide extra benefits to our staff and certainly with the community’s larger interest in having a healthy community. This joint venture fits right in so we're very excited for this opening,” Francesconi said.
There are other municipalities that have these types of clinics, but having such a clinic is rarer with schools. While examining different options, the school corporation discovered NorthShore Health Centers. Francesconi was grateful to visit one of NorthShore Health Centers’ locations and develop a relationship from there.
“We're excited to be here at La Porte High School today to build the relationship that we have with the community schools to provide healthcare to their teachers and the public to help extend better quality and easier access,” said CEO of NorthShore Health Centers David Hall. “We've been working on the relationship with the schools probably since early 2020. With COVID, it has been a little delayed, but we finally opened at the beginning of the school year, and we're eager to see how it works out.”
Although it has only been open for a few months, Francesconi has noticed growth within staff use. Having the clinic located at the school makes it a convenient location for teachers.
“As long as there are families who can benefit from this, there's going to be a cost savings to them as well as a service that will be available daily through the week,” Francesconi said.
With years of experience in the medical field, NorthShore Health Center’s Mariana Taylor works as the clinic’s family nurse practitioner, delivering quality care to patients.
“My experience working in the intensive care unit for 16 years prior to my family nurse practitioner role really gave me the insight and made me realize how important preventative care is in our society and in our community and how much more we need to focus on that," Taylor said. "That's just one of the reasons why I'm extremely excited about this partnership with LaPorte Community School Corporation.”
For more information about NorthShore Health Centers and its network of clinics, visit https://northshorehealth.org/
