A new playbook for community care
Penn Medicine is helping student-athletes stay in the game while expanding access to care where it is needed most.
On a late August afternoon, Jaisen Smith walked into Overbrook High School with his mom, Brandy Hennie, ready to take care of the last football preseason task: getting his sports physical.
Jaisen understood that this was the final hurdle standing between him and stepping foot on the field this fall. Student-athletes know the importance of this annual state requirement: no physical, no sports.
Luckily, for Jaisen and his mom, the doctor's office came to him.
Inside the school, clinicians from Penn Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health were providing free sports physicals, screening students for medical conditions that could put them at risk while helping them meet the requirements to play, without ever leaving their neighborhood.
“I wasn’t expecting him to get his physical done [today],” Hennie said. “We came for freshman orientation, and they told us Penn Medicine was doing sports physicals in the gym, and he could get cleared right now. It was a nice surprise.”
A partnership that started with vaccines
The roots of the program stretch back to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Penn Medicine expanded community-based vaccination efforts, teams from the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health partnered with schools throughout Philadelphia. One of those partners was West Philadelphia High School, where clinicians held vaccine clinics for students and their families.
“The principal at West Philadelphia High School said to us, ‘Could you come back more frequently so that I can get my student-athletes vaccinated?’” recalled Heather Klusaritz, PhD, MSW, division chief for Community Health at Penn Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. “Then she asked, ‘What else can you do?’”
The answer was much more than vaccinations.
Penn Medicine partnered with the School District of Philadelphia to establish a school-based health center at West Philadelphia High School. The center operates on a hub-and-spoke model, with Penn Medicine serving as the central hub that provides clinicians, coordination, and medical oversight. Schools act as spokes, bringing those services directly into communities where students and families need them. Rather than requiring families to travel to a clinic, the care comes to them.
Today, family medicine clinicians provide a wide range of services, including primary care, preventive care, immunizations, and behavioral health support. Plans are underway to expand those offerings through a dedicated school-based clinic that will also serve the surrounding West and Southwest Philadelphia communities.
“Our partnership with the Penn Medicine Clinic has been a game-changer for our school community,” said Marla Travis, principal of West Philadelphia High School. “On the athletics side, our student-athletes are cleared and on the field faster than ever before. Additionally, its reach goes far beyond sports. The on-site immunization support allows us to enroll new students smoothly without delay. Lastly, providing accessible care right here on campus takes a massive burden off our families and staff.”
Why sports physicals became a priority
Building on the success of the health center, the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health launched an effort to bring sports physicals directly to schools across the city, such as the Overbrook High School clinic that cleared Jaisen Smith.
The program now serves roughly 15 to 20 schools each year, helping eliminate common barriers to care that many families experience. For some families, getting a sports physical means finding an appointment with primary care providers that fit around work and school schedules. For others, it means arranging a ride to a clinic or covering out-of-pocket costs they had not planned for.
“Primary care access is a major barrier for many families in Philadelphia,” Klusaritz said. “Even for families who have a primary care provider, it’s difficult to get an appointment in time for a student to participate.”
With philanthropic support from the Gary Player Foundation and other donors, Penn launched a model that brings sports physicals directly to students.
By eliminating the need for separate appointments and travel, the program helps students get evaluated and approved for safe participation in sports more quickly and removes obstacles that might otherwise prevent them from participating.
For Jaisen and his family, the process was convenient and easy. What began as freshman orientation ended with the opportunity for Jaisen to get ready to get on the field this fall.
Meeting students where they are
For families that may not know what their student needs, the option to get physicals at school makes an even bigger difference. One school that stands out to Klusaritz is Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia, which serves a large immigrant population.
Many immigrant families are unfamiliar with the requirement for a sports physical before participating in athletics. At the same time, they may be navigating a new health care system while establishing relationships with local providers.
Providing sports physicals directly in the schools like Bartram allows Penn Medicine to meet students where they are for easy access to care.
“Seeing families go through experiences like these reinforces the value of Penn Medicine’s commitment to bringing care into community settings,” Klusaritz added. “It helps ensure that patients and their families can access the care they need, even when traditional health care settings may feel difficult to navigate.”
More than sports
While Jaisen was focused on getting onto the football field, Penn Medicine clinicians were focused on making sure he could get there safely.
Research shows that participation in sports can support physical health, social development, academic success, and long-term well-being. Just as important, sports give students a place to belong.
“If you can keep kids in safe spaces after school, you reduce their exposure to community violence,” Klusaritz said. “We talk about school athletics as violence prevention.”
What starts as a sports physical can also become a student’s first connection to ongoing health care services. Each visit creates an opportunity to identify unmet health needs, answer questions, and connect families with additional resources and services.
That’s why the Penn Medicine team hopes to keep growing programs like this one.
“The impact we’ve seen so far from access to the clinic is just the beginning,” said Joseph Schwindt, assistant principal at West Philadelphia High School. “As we look ahead, we’re especially excited about expanding our community partnership into specialized areas like concussion management. Working together to build a streamlined, school-integrated approach to concussion recovery will ensure our students get the appropriate medical and academic support they need to safely return to the classroom and the field.”
By bringing health care directly to students, the program helps remove barriers to care, connect families with needed services, and ensure more young people have the opportunity to stay healthy, active, and safe within their communities.