Kiwanis and Civitan Clubs Help Fayette County School Clinics Purchase New Thermometers

Temporal artery scanner thermometers will soon be in every Fayette County school clinic thanks to donations from two local civic organizations.

The Kiwanis Club of Fayette County and the Fayette County Civitan Club have both made monetary donations to the school system’s School Health Services program after learning about the need for thermometers that take temperatures by scanning the forehead.

The school system found it would be more efficient and less costly to have the temporal artery scanners after dealing with flu outbreaks at the beginning of the school year. As individual students and staff members were diagnosed with the flu, school nurses took the temperatures of all students and staff in order to detect others that were running a fever, a symptom of the flu. Each time a temperature was taken, a new protective cover had to be placed on the thermometer. Not only was this costly, but it was also time consuming.

The temporal artery scanners can be cleaned with alcohol between students, eliminating a need for costly covers and making it more time efficient to take multiple temperatures. They also have a sliver ion antimicrobial head that destroys harmful bacteria, mold, mildew and fungi on contact.

“I want to thank these two organizations for helping us get the scanner thermometers into our school clinics. They are more accurate, efficient and less expensive than what we are using now. These thermometers are going to be a great asset to the clinics and I just want to thank these groups again for their donations,” says School Health Services Specialist Debbie King.

The temporal artery scanner is an infrared thermometer that measures temperature with a gentle stroke of the forehead, capturing the naturally emitted heat from the skin over the temporal artery. The scanner has proven to give more accurate readings than ear thermometers because it measures arterial temperature, the same temperature as the blood flowing from the heart which is the best determinate of body temperature.

The scanners cost about $78 each. School clinics are expected to receive the new thermometers in January.

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