BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — As RWJBarnabas Health continues expanding its footprint in Bergen County, a new statewide initiative is offering a glimpse of the kinds of community health programs that could eventually make their way to the region.

RWJBarnabas Health and the New Jersey Department of Health announced this week a new back-to-school initiative providing vaccinations, school physicals and preventive health services through clinics, mobile health units and community partnerships.

The current program is focused on Essex and Union counties, but its expansion comes as RWJBarnabas prepares to deepen its presence in Bergen County through the planned completion of its takeover of Englewood Health.

That raises an obvious question locally: Could programs like these eventually be brought to Bergen County?

The Stay Well. Learn Well. initiative brings together RWJBarnabas, state and county health departments, federally qualified health centers, school districts and community organizations to make preventive care more accessible to families.

The program includes regional vaccination clinics as well as pediatric mobile health clinics offering school physicals and connecting families with vaccination providers and ongoing primary care.

RWJBarnabas has already demonstrated a willingness to bring its resources into Bergen County through partnerships with community-based emergency responders.

RWJBarnabas was the first major hospital system in New Jersey to adopt the state's volunteer paramedic program, partnering with volunteer EMS agencies to integrate paramedic care into their existing response models. For more than a year, RWJBarnabas has partnered with Bergen Hatzalah, the only volunteer Emergency Medical Services organization in Bergen County participating in the statewide program, providing integrated Advanced Life Support paramedic response, care and treatment through that partnership.

The relationship illustrates how the health system can work with existing community organizations rather than simply building programs from the ground up.

For Bergen County families, the potential expansion of initiatives like Stay Well. Learn Well. could mean bringing more preventive health resources directly into local communities, particularly as RWJBarnabas' relationship with Englewood Health takes shape.

The back-to-school initiative's current clinics will serve children from pre-K through age 18 with recommended vaccinations, school physicals and connections to additional health and community resources.

For a health system increasingly establishing itself in Bergen County, the question may be less about whether RWJBarnabas will bring more community-based programs to the region and more about which ones will be next.