October 5, 2022
Mount Tahoma High School clinic brings care to students
TACOMA, Wash. — A new MultiCare Health System clinic opened last month at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. The on-site clinic, which aims to remove barriers for students needing care, provides preventive care, behavioral health care and treatment for illness and injury.
Located in the South Tacoma neighborhood, Mount Tahoma High School currently serves about 1,500 students in grades nine to 12. Mount Tahoma offers students several unique programs, including the Healthcare Careers Academy, which partners with MultiCare.
“The ability to bring health care into our schools is huge, and I want our students to know this is their clinic,” said Josh Garcia, Tacoma Public Schools superintendent. “We are grateful to again expand our partnership with MultiCare.”
Bringing primary care to the school allows students to develop trusted relationships with health care providers at a young age, which is proven to contribute to a healthier life. The clinic also provides access to care that otherwise may be unattainable for students in the area.
“Being present at this level in the school and community really allows us to live out our mission of partnering for healing and a healthy future,” said Cyd Marckmann, director of MultiCare’s school-based clinics. “When we can meet kids where they are and engage them in their health, we can lay the groundwork to help them be healthier adults.”
MultiCare providers staff the clinic two days a week and offer a range of services, including sports physicals, family planning and treatment of coughs and colds. A partnership with Greater Lakes Mental Healthcare brings counseling services on site once a week. Students seen at the clinic also have access to a continuum of care with referrals to other MultiCare services such as orthopedics or Mary Bridge Children’s as needed.
Tacoma Public Schools and MultiCare have a long-standing partnership that includes Healthcare Careers Academy, a four-year, part-time high school program that prepares students for careers in the medical field. MultiCare also operates a school clinic at Oakland High School.
Learn more about MultiCare in the community.
About MultiCare
MultiCare is a not-for-profit health care organization with more than 20,000 team members, including employees, providers and volunteers. MultiCare has been caring for our community for well over a century, since the founding of Tacoma’s first hospital, and today is the largest community-based, locally governed health system in the state of Washington.
MultiCare’s comprehensive system of health includes numerous primary care, urgent care and specialty services — including MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care, Pulse Heart Institute and MultiCare Rockwood Clinic, the largest multispecialty clinic in the Inland Northwest region.
MultiCare’s network of care includes 12 hospitals:
- MultiCare Allenmore Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Auburn Medical Center, Auburn
- MultiCare Capital Medical Center, Olympia
- MultiCare Covington Medical Center, Covington
- MultiCare Deaconess Hospital, Spokane
- MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, Puyallup
- Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley
- MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital, Yakima
- Navos Behavioral Health Hospital
- Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital