In the latter part of the 1990's, the Duke Endowment contacted Wayne Memorial Hospital because Wayne County had the 9th most uninsured school-aged children in the state and the Duke Endowment wanted to help the hospital establish two school-based health centers in the Wayne County Public Schools.

The hospital contacted Dave Tayloe, Jr., MD, of Goldsboro Pediatrics about this opportunity and Dr. Tayloe assisted the hospital in developing the Wayne Initiative for School Health (WISH). Today, WISH operates 6 school-based health centers (four middle schools and two high schools), targeting at-risk students in these schools who may not otherwise have access to comprehensive health services, including consultations at school with mental health clinical social workers, health educators, and registered dietitians.

Each health center operates the entire time school is open and is staffed with a full-time Registered Nurse. WISH employs nurse practitioners and physician assistants who rotate among the centers to provide primary health services for enrolled students.

Goldsboro Pediatrics serves as the consulting and on-call pediatric resource for WISH. Dr. Tayloe is Chairperson of the WISH Board and Medical Director for WISH. Funding for WISH comes from a variety of federal, state, county, and private sources (Wayne Memorial Hospital, Wayne County Commissioners, Goldsboro City Council, Mt. Olive City Council, Wayne County Public Schools, Wayne County Department of Public Health, NC Department of Health and Human Services, Eastpointe, Goldsboro Pediatrics, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust).

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