School clinic reopens at JCT

It’s been more than three years since Jackson-Madison County Schools had its own clinic available for students and staff to use when needed.

The school district had one for more than a decade, but that service went away when the COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person classes in March of 2020.

JMCSS leadership as well as leaders from West Tennessee Healthcare wanted to bring it back as soon as they could, but they wanted to make sure it was safe.

“We wanted to bring it back a year ago, but a lot of the details had to be worked out about how it would run and how we’d get it started,” said Annette Wilson, the coordinator of school health for JMCSS.

The clinic is housed inside the building of Jackson Careers and Technology Middle School on Lexington Avenue in East Jackson.

Ashley Hardee, a family nurse practitioner from West Tennessee Medical Group, will be the person at the clinic seeing and treating patients.

Any student or employee of Jackson-Madison County Schools who feels the need to visit a medical facility when they’re feeling sick can visit that facility for a diagnosis and treatment.

“We’re obviously limited in what we can treat, but if a student or staffer is feeling under the weather, they can come here for a consultation,” Wilson said.

Darrell King, a vice-president at West Tennessee Healthcare and coordinator of West Tennessee Medical Group, said having this service available for JMCSS is something that’s been needed and they’re glad to be involved in bringing it back.

“There are other school systems that we’d already brought this back with, but not the size of Jackson-Madison County Schools,” King said. “So with 12,000 students and [2,000 employees], a service like this is very much needed, so we’re glad to partner with JMCSS and help provide this service.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news