Student Health has decided to close its East Campus Clinic in an effort to provide more efficient care for students.
Due to the East Campus Clinic’s inability to provide high-level care, student health clinical services will be exclusively provided at the Student Health Center on West Campus beginning in the Spring semester. The East Campus Clinic is only equipped to provide low-level care, and occasional referrals for students suffering from more serious ailments, while the Student Health Center provides both low-level and specialized care.
“It comes down to giving better care,” said Director of Student Health John Vaughn. “It might be more convenient for a student just to walk in, but it doesn’t help to wait an hour and then be told that you can’t get what you really need.”
Students who go to the 600-square-foot East Campus student health center with serious afflictions cannot receive targeted care and are referred to the Student Health Center—often prolonging the wait for effective care. Started in the 1990’s and equipped solely with a nurse, a care provider and limited medical resources, the center was originally designed to serve minor ailments of first-years seeking advice.
“There’s no renovation about it—it would either be to add space on or find another accessible space,” said Jean Hanson, associate director of clinical support services and outreach at the Student Health Center.
Vaughn explained that the number of student referrals to the center on West was increasing, and centralizing the location made practical sense.
“It’s not like the old days where you can have some nurse to check on kids who don’t feel well—their medical needs are more complex,” Vaughn said. “By getting everything in one place, every student will get the same level of care that they need.”
Vaughn explained that students go to the East Campus Clinic with conditions ranging from mental health issues to broken limbs—problems the center wasn’t created to handle.
“The acuity of illness has changed so much—when we first started [the East Campus Clinic], we saw the most freshmen out of anybody else and they were the least sick,” Hanson said.
Freshman Jiawei Zhang, who went in to the East Campus Clinic for a severe cough and strep throat came out frustrated with the care he received.
“The ‘physician’ there told me to buy honey from under the marketplace and mix it with hot water and that [that] was more effective than Robitussin,” he wrote in a Facebook message, also citing inconsistent hours and long wait times. “I don’t think I will go again. I might die while waiting.”
Although the lack of a clinic on east campus may be inconvenient for freshmen, Vaughn noted that the change was worth better care for students.
“There’s a convenience factor that’s not going to be there for students—yes, we get that,” said Vaughn, “But I think that [centralized care] is more valuable, even as a parent, than to say, ‘We can have someone eyeball you over there, but they probably won’t be able to take care of you.’”
In the 2012-2013 academic year, the East Campus Clinic saw 2,379 patients. Accessibility to the center on West Campus should not change, even with the influx of appointments. Practitioners from East Campus are being integrated at the center to provide care to students.
“We’re making room for them, and we’ve been able to make some changes in the way the provider schedules were done,” said Vaughn, who added that students can simply walk into the Student Health Center and be assessed to save time.
“We have a mid-level provider. We’re all in the same place. We have all the supporting nursing staff,” Vaughn said.
Sue Wasiolek, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students supports the endeavor, noting that students end up going to the center on West Campus after their visit to the East Campus Clinic anyways. The approval for the change, therefore, came fairly easily.
“We didn’t have to argue very hard,” Hanson said.
The integration will be implemented starting the first day of the Spring semester.
“We’re going to see how it goes, it’s a trial for this semester,” Vaughn said.
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