Clinic Visit Data as a Tool to Improve Student Health

Typically, the number of student visits to a school clinic is interesting only to the health services department as a metric for setting levels for clinic staffing and medical supply stocking. However, the number of visits and the reasons for those visits can gauge a school's indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and can motivate the facility services department to perform an environmental health assessment and implement any necessary corrective actions. To ascertain the IEQ of a classroom, facility services staff members usually perform a visual inspection or use an inexpensive indoor air quality meter. In some cases, they may use a surveyor questionnaire; but such methods are subjective and can result in false negatives since most air pollutants are invisible to the unaided eye. One way to assess a school's IEQ is to monitor clinic visit data. Analyzing clinic visit data can help inform programs to improve environmental quality. (Contains 4 figures.)