Updated Nov. 23, 2016 at 1 p.m.

Memorial Hermann partners with several Greater Houston area school districts to provide medical support and concussion prevention to athletic programs. Katy ISD is one of the only school districts to have Memorial Hermann medical professionals on its sidelines during practice sessions and games.

KISD Assistant Athletic Director Charlie Stevens said the district has partnered with Memorial Hermann in some capacity for almost a decade. However, two years ago it added Memorial Hermann staff to help its in-house athletic trainers keep up with the rapidly growing student-athlete population. KISD added junior high soccer in the 2015-16 school year, raising the district’s student-athlete tally to about 16,000. The district also has cross country, football, track and wrestling, which are no-cut sports offering unlimited roster spots, he said.

“Our relationship with [Memorial] Hermann gives me access to a lot of [resources],” Stevens said. “We don’t just run out [and] just grab bag what we do. We talk to experts, and we try and make sound decisions on what we do with our kids.”

According to Stevens, KISD employs two full-time trainers, who provide care to student-athletes at each of the district’s seven high schools and their feeder junior high schools. He said Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation's outreach program provides the district with an additional trainer, who also works part time with each feeder pattern.

Stevens said KISD has implemented best practices related to strength and conditioning and the maintenance of equipment since he began working for the district in 1984. However, having these additional personnel members as part of the team greatly enhances the district’s sports medicine program, he said.

David Wilkinson, an outreach athletic trainer for Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, said KISD is one of the first districts to which Memorial Hermann has provided trainers. However, Pearland, Humble and Spring Branch ISDs have all had contracts with Memorial Hermann’s outreach program for three or four years. The hospital also provides assistance to several other districts and local entities in a less formal manner, he said.

"We’ve got different doctors around town that are concussion-trained, so they can look at a kid to determine when it’s appropriate for him to get back and healthy ... ”

– David Wilkinson, outreach athletic trainer for Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation

According to Wilkinson, providing concussion-related materials to school districts is an area of focus for the hospital system. Resources, such as cognitive testing, employee training seminars and access to specialists, aid districts in enforcing House Bill 2038, he said.

Passed by the state Legislature in May 2011, HB 2038—known as “Natasha’s Law”—details a number of mandates related to concussion prevention and treatment. Provisions in HB 2038 include oversight, documentation, participation and education. Wilkinson said getting an opinion from a third-party medical professional—whether on the sidelines or off the field—can help eliminate gray areas in preventing, diagnosing and treating sports concussions.

“We’ve got different doctors around town that are concussion-trained,” he said. “So they can look at a kid to determine when it’s appropriate for him to get back and healthy and [what is a] safe environment for them to not risk further injury.”

Wilkinson, who also works closely with neighboring SBISD as part of his outreach efforts, said KISD is a frontrunner in the Greater Houston area when it comes to its concussion prevention and treatment programs.

“They’re one of the leaders,” he said. “[Stevens] and the athletic trainers at the schools do a really good job at staying abreast of what’s going [on]. In the Houston area, most of the school districts and schools have an athletic trainer, so it’s a lot easier to implement the law and have those things followed.”