Spartan Clinics at Superior High School and Superior Middle School will open for appointments the week of Jan. 5, according to a Dec. 15 news release from the School District of Superior. No start date has been determined for the Tiger Clinic at Northwestern High School.
At each school, the clinic will be set up in a secure room off of the health office with a computer and Internet access.
The Maple Board of Education approved the Tiger Clinic at its Monday, Dec. 8 meeting.
The telehealth option helps keep students in the classroom as much as possible, said Bradley Larrabee, principal of Northwestern and Iron River elementary schools, who has been active in setting up the Tiger Clinic. Instead of having to leave school to drive to appointments, high school students will be able to access Essentia's telecare team from the school two days a week.
What do the video-conference visits cover? Everything from urgent care to routine checkups, minor illness and injuries, behavioral health care, managing chronic conditions and more.
"Our role is just simply trying to facilitate an appointment which helps keep students in school, which is what we like. It opens up another opportunity for parents, if they wish," said Maple Interim District Administrator Cody Fechtelkotter.
A MyChart account through Essentia Health is required to set up appointments.
Virtual mental health counseling services have been available to Maple students at the secondary level for the past eight years, Larrabee said, and some speech and language services are also provided via telehealth.
"We don't take care of any insurance information. We don't do anything registration-wise," Larrabee said. "We simply share the contact information and parents work through their providers in order to set up those appointments, and then the provider and the child are able to meet right within our facility. So we're taking the success we've had in the mental health counseling piece, and we're bringing it into physical health."
Other goals of the new virtual clinics are to reduce wait times and improve access to care, according to the Superior School District news release. The Spartan clinics will be available for secondary students as well as staff.
"This partnership with Essentia Health will increase access to health care to all our students and staff within our district," Brynn Larrabee, Superior's health services coordinator, said in a statement.
Deer River High School in Minnesota was the first school in the region to roll out an Essentia Health telecare access site in October. Maple and Superior will be the first sites in Wisconsin.
Dana Scherf, operations senior manager at Deer River and Grand Rapids clinics, said the one good thing that came from the COVID-19 pandemic was the focus on digital health. She expects the use of technology will continue to grow.
"It's bringing light to, you know, what can we do? How can we change things when health care is ever changing and how can we bring care to the patient, to the student, rather than them coming to the facility," Scherf said.
At Northwestern High School, visit the Tiger Clinic website for more information. In Superior, email Brynn Larrabee at brynn.larrabee@superior.k12.wi.usfor more information.
© 2025 the Superior Telegram (Superior, Wis.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
