Valley hospital partners with school district’s athletic program
Sep 4, 2014, 5:00 AM | Updated: 5:00 am
PHOENIX — It’s out of a hospital and into a high school for three staff members at Dignity Health Mercy Gilbert Medical Center.
They will be partnering with five public high schools in Gilbert, Ariz., to provide athletic care for school teams.
“This is an effort to improve and increase the level of sports medicine and athletic training services that are provided in the Gilbert public schools,” said Dr. Matthew Hansen, medical director of the hospital’s sports medicine program.
The new program is designed to be on par with other sports medicine programs offered at the collegiate level.
“Part of that is having the right numbers of athletic trainers to care for student athletes, but also having the right specialist and sub-specialists to care for them as well,” Hansen said.
More than 4,000 high school athletes in the Gilbert School District will benefit from the program.
“We see this as a comprehensive health care environment for the students,” he added.