Lewiston-Auburn school-based health programs have won a federal grant to create electronic medical records and high-tech care, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, has announced.

The technology boost will improve medical care for students, said Jim Lysen, executive director of Community Clinical Services, which provides health clinics at Lewiston and Auburn middle and high schools.

The $337,862 grant is from the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. The money is part of the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care reform passed in 2010. Community Clinicial Services is affiliated with St. Mary’s Health System.

Lysen said he’s excited and that getting the grant was competitive.

“It’s a win-win situation,” he said Monday. “This will really bring us into the state-of-the-art technology with electronic health records allowing us to store data in a much better way. It means efficient and effective health care delivery, more efficient billing procedures. It will hep us sustain ourselves better,” doing more with less money.

Technology will mean the school centers will be able to see more students and provide more care with telemedicine, Lysen said.

“We don’t have a nurse practitioner in each school for the full day,” he said. If a student at the middle school has an acute condition, “we can do a link” with the nurse practitioner at another school, or a doctor elsewhere.

Students will have access to two-way communication with providers. There’ll be high-resolution cameras and scopes showing heart rates and nose and ear conditions. Technology will provide a better understanding and tracking of students conditions, Lysen said. “When they need another exam, it’ll show up electronically.”

Electronic medical records mean providers and administrative staff will spend less time filling out forms using copious amounts of paper. Eventually, the school centers plan to create a “patient portal” where parents will be able to enroll their students online, make appointments and update their child’s medical information, Lysen said.

In addition, the school centers have recently been approved for five-year funding by the state. The school health centers cost about $650,000 a year to operate, Lysen said. The state money will cover $198,000 of that. The rest comes from reimbursements from health-care plans and other sources.

Auburn School Superintendent Katy Grondin said she is pleased to hear about the grant money. The federal grant will allow “the school-based health centers to increase efficiency in managing patient records, which means more resources for students and family services,” Grondin said.

Lewiston’s middle and high school health centers are used heavily by students,  “and result in students receiving needed services that they might not be receiving,” said Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster.

An elementary health center at Longley begins its second year this fall. “The jury is still out on the effectiveness and use of this center,” but another year is being given to fully evaluate the program, Webster said.

Other school health centers in Maine receiving federal grants as part of the Affordable Care Act are the Penobscot Community Health Center, $234,862; the City of Calais, $109,359 and Readfield, $34,563.