Sentara Healthcare partners with Rockingham County Public Schools for a Meningococcal vaccination event

Rockingham County Public Schools hosted a meningococcal vaccination event at Spotswood High School and Broadway High School Monday, November 14. Around 80 students were still in need of the state-mandated vaccine before the deadline of November 20. According to RCPS Superintendent Dr. Oskar Scheikl, these students would no longer be able to attend classes without receiving the vaccine.

“This really is the last effort to make sure those students can remain in school and continue to get their education. That's our primary goal, to have kids in school so they can be here with their peers and get educated. When these requirements are there, we do everything we can - including clinics like this - to make sure that happens,” said Scheikl.

RCPS worked with Sentara Healthcare to set up the meningococcal vaccination events. East Rockingham High School students who needed the vaccine went to Spotswood H.S. to receive it, while Turner Ashby High School students traveled to Broadway H.S. Sentara Healthcare medical assistants administered the meningococcal vaccines through its Sentara Community Care program.

“By partnering with the health department, the school system, we’re able to close a gap that the community needed,” said Heather Strock, executive director of Sentara Community Care. “They reached out to us to see if we could be an option to help out with what they needed to get done by November the 20th. So that’s what we’re doing today. We brought our team up.”

Sentara Community Care hosted a similar meningococcal vaccination event for Harrisonburg High Schools in August.

“We have these thanks to Sentara,” Scheikl added. “These are the community partnerships where everyone works together. The healthcare community and the school community protect public health to make sure students can get an education and we do what it takes to make that happen.”

Sentara Community Care offers neighborhood-level access to holistic care for Medicaid members, as well as uninsured and underinsured individuals, through two initial models: Sentara Community Care Centers and Sentara Mobile Care. The goal is to reduce traditional barriers to health and wellness by maximizing convenience and providing consistent, embedded medical and wrap-around services in neighborhoods that historically lacked access, have known health disparities, and statistically experience worse health outcomes.

Over the next two years, Sentara Community Care intends to grow throughout the whole Sentara footprint in Virginia and North Carolina.

Sentara Community Care will be expanding to the Shenandoah Valley in Spring 2023.

“We will have a small Community Care Center in downtown Harrisonburg, as well as, our Sentara Care Mobile Bus. We’ll be on the road serving the counties surrounding Harrisonburg, Rockingham, Page County, all around to be able to assist
the communities where the most need is,” said Strock.

“Being more convenient where transportation may be an issue - or access, different hours, after-hours. So, we’ll get to know the community in different ways and provide that support.”