The University’s Student Health Center underwent evaluations Monday and Tuesday to determine whether it would again receive accreditation.
The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, who conducted the evaluation, will not release the accreditation results for another six to eight weeks.
But health center personnel are optimistic about the results because the health center has been accredited since 1989.
The health center is the only university health center in the state and one of about 50 in the nation to attain accreditation.
According to the AAAHC Web site, accreditation is a voluntary process that allows health care facilities to measure their performance to nationally recognized standards.
“We are providing the highest level of care, just as high or higher than what you can get in the community,” said Julie Hupperich, associate director of the health center.
Hupperich said accreditation is very important. She said it means the health center is meeting certain standards and it is a great way to get constructive feedback on ways the health center can better serve students.
Past accreditors’ comments have led to changes in the health center.
When the accreditors suggested the health center make patient parking more accessible, the health center instituted parking permits to prevent non-patients from parking in patient spots. And when Infirmary Road was made a one-way street, six new parking spaces were created for patients.
Although the health center relishes the feedback from its accreditors, it does not always implement their suggestions.
Hupperich said during one past preliminary conference, an evaluator suggested the health center raise its no-show fee because the health center had a high no-show rate and a low fee compared to other health institutions. Instead of increasing the fee, the health center implemented an e-mail reminder system that has reduced the amount of no-shows.
Hupperich said one of the best things about accreditation is the assessor usually comes from a peer institute. This year’s accreditor is the director of the health center at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Hupperich said she likes college health because “there’s not a competitive spirit.”
“We all learn from each other,” she said.
Hupperich also said though parents and students sometimes do not understand what accreditation signifies, it can break myths they have about the health center.
“I get calls from people asking if we have real doctors here,” Hupperich said.
Some students said having an accredited health center on campus is important.
“It’s something that’s needed for the campus community because a lot of students are away from their home physicians,” said Regina Brasseaux, early education sophomore.
Tiffany Cripps, elementary education senior, said she does not visit the health center because she does not “think students receive the proper care there.”
Cripps said she went in once and was told she only had a sinus infection and did not need antibiotics. After a few weeks passed, she consulted her personal physician, who diagnosed her with pleurisy and hospitalized her.
She said her doctor told her if the condition had been caught earlier she would not have been hospitalized.
Cripps said despite her poor experience with the health center, she believes its accreditation “is something that needs to happen.”
—-Contact Allen Womble at [email protected]