SANTA ANA : Health Plan to Be Tested in Schools

Orange County pediatricians have raised $36,000 to launch a pilot health-screening program for children at two Santa Ana elementary schools, with hopes of eventually bringing preventive medical care to the entire district.

Volunteer physicians will visit Roosevelt and Grant elementary schools over the course of four days late this month and in early December to provide physical examinations and perhaps give immunizations where needed, according to members of the Orange County chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Doctors said they hope data collected in their initial screenings will justify expansion of the health program throughout the Santa Ana Unified School District, where many among the nearly 46,000 students are from low-income families and have no health insurance.

“We think as many as 80% of these kids may never have seen a doctor,” said Dr. Paul Y. Qaqundah, outgoing president of the local academy chapter. “This is just a start. Our plan is to have an on-site clinic open during school days.”

Added Dr. David Lang, head of the infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Orange County and leader of the academy’s screening effort: “If you’re going to have an impact on preventive health care, I believe you have to start with very young children.”

The James Irvine Foundation has contributed $20,000 to the effort. The city of Santa Ana has donated another $15,000, and the physicians’ group has given another $1,000, to be augmented by volunteer efforts of member pediatricians.

In this initial planning and study stage, doctors will examine first- and fifth-grade students at the two schools, according to Lucinda Hundley, Santa Ana Unified’s director of special education and health services.

Doctors will visit Grant Elementary on Nov. 28 and Nov. 30, and Roosevelt Elementary on Dec. 6 and 7. Hundley said the students at both schools are “fairly typical” of students throughout the district.

Susan Badger, program officer for the James Irvine Foundation in Newport Beach, said the $20,000 grant, one among $23 million in grants awarded statewide this year, is aimed at developing the kind of program that can begin to attack the growing problem of inadequate health care for poor children.

“I would hope (the project) would turn up enough information and rally enough (support) to meet the need of these kids within the Santa Ana community,” she said.

Hundley said the district hopes to use the data collected by the doctors to develop a broader proposal by next February.

Children identified with medical problems will be referred for follow-up care, said Lang, adding: “I’m very proud of the physicians who are willing to close their offices and work at this. They don’t have to do it.”