A new program will help sick children in four Allen County schools by offering them telemedicine services for conditions that would normally pull them out of school for a doctor’s visit.

The effort is a partnership between Allen County Schools and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, a nonprofit children’s hospital associated with the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

“This program is to support those school nurses when they need additional resources,” said Luke Gregory, the CEO of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital.

Through the program, nurses with the Allen County Health Department based in the district’s four schools will work with nurse practitioners and pediatricians in the children’s hospital’s Pediatric Primary Care Clinic on health issues that fall outside a school nurse’s scope, according to a news release.

Normally, certain illnesses can disrupt the school day for students who need to see pediatricians. Through this initiative, Gregory said school nurses will be able to consult with doctors in acute cases involving asthma and diabetes, for example.

Allen County Schools Superintendent Randall Jackson, in a news release, said the program will benefit students.

“It’s an absolutely wonderful opportunity for the students of the Allen County school system and we’re very grateful for the help the Turner Foundation has given us over the years. They’ve served us through many projects in the past, but the potential for the general health and well-being of our students in connection with Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital is tremendous,” Jackson said. “It’s just going to be a wonderful opportunity for the students in our school system.”

Gregory said this service is especially helpful because there is no pediatrician in Allen County. Parents often have to travel to Bowling Green or as far away as Nashville for pediatric care.

Gregory described the program as a response to a poor distribution of physicians across rural communities nationwide. The limited amount of health care resources in Allen County is reflected in the high volume of children the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital treats from the county each year, Gregory said.

“We see about 800 children out of Allen County every year,” he said.

The program could be a springboard for the children’s hospital, Gregory said.

“We might be able to replicate this model in Tennessee and other surrounding states,” he said.

The program is made possible by a donation from Laura Jo and Wayne Dugas, the Cal Turner Family Foundation and the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation. The Dugas and Turner families are from Scottsville; family patriarch Cal Turner Sr. created the Dollar General Corp.

The donation is also supporting construction of a 160,000-square foot-expansion currently underway at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital that will house telemedicine facilities.

Gregory thanked the Turner family for their support.

“They were very just instrumental in providing the resources to get this accomplished,” he said. “It would not have happened without the family.”

The new services are planned to be in place in early January, Gregory said.