One of the many services available to University students is the on campus Student Health Center.
The Health Center is open six days a week during the fall and spring semesters and five days a week during summer sessions. In addition to the general health center facility, there is also a women’s health facility, counseling center, and pharmacy on campus.
“When all 30,000 students are on campus, we are really busy. Our appointments are full at the start of every day and we also try to do walk-ins,” Jerry Barker, associate vice-chancellor and director of the Student Health Center, said.
There are six fully certified physicians that work at the health center, according to Barker. These physicians have all attended accredited medical schools, completed at least a 3-year residency program, have a North Carolina medical license and have experience working in the medical field. All physicians at the Health Center are board certified, which means that they have completed at least 50 hours of continuing medical education every year.
“They are really well qualified physicians, as well qualified as anyone could be,” Barker said.
In addition to the six physicians, the Health Center also has six extenders. According to Barker, extenders are nurse practitioners or physicians assistants who have completed 2 years of medical training.
Extenders are placed with a physician in the Health Center. For the first 6 months of employment, this physician oversees all medical charts and cases that extenders work on.
“Our extenders are usually very highly rated. A lot of them have a nursing or EMT background, so they tend to have a really good bedside manner,” Barker said.
What can they do?
Barker said that the Health Center not only specializes in primary care, but is also equipped to deal with some urgent care situations. About 60 percent of all appointments are now made online and the Health Center tries to accommodate walk-in patients.
“We deal mostly with acute illness; things that are happening right now. We have work-in services for people that are sick without appointments. We really try our best to see everyone that comes in,” Barker said.
Things like compound fractures, broken bones, severe chest pains, and severe bleeding should be handled in an emergency room or by dialing 911. The Health Center is not equipped to handle emergency room situations.
“We specialize in primary care and can also do some urgent care, but we are not an emergency room,” Barker said.
One of the most common issues students have is difficulty with breathing. Asthma attacks are very common among the young adult population, according to Barker. The Health Center is sometimes equipped to deal with this issue but often refers students to the emergency room when the problem is severe.
“We see a lot of people with difficulty breathing. Asthmatic attacks can be triggered by a lot of different things. We will always do what we can to stabilize a person; we do the same things most urgent care places do and sometimes that means sending people to the emergency room,” Barker said.
Transporting students to the emergency room is something that happens fairly often; an average of twice a week, Barker said. This does not include transports that may happen at other places on campus.
“We see a lot more than just colds and sore throats. We probably see and average of two transports a week through EMS to the hospital,” Barker said.
Cost information
The Health Center sees an average of 55,000 patient visits each year. The pharmacy, located in the Health Center, fills an average of 60,000 prescriptions a year. The busiest months of the year for the Health Center are January and February, according to Barker.
“Even though people think that this is a healthy young adult population, there are still plenty of things for us to treat,” Barker said.
Full time students at the University pay an annual fee of $245 every academic year for health services.
This fee covers visits to doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, and counselors at the Health Center. The fee also covers certain medications, three free condoms a day, aspirin, and band-aids at the Health Center.
Everything at the on campus Health Center is given to students at a reduced cost, Barker said. Lab work is done at about a quarter of the average cost and prescriptions cost only about 40 percent of what they would cost at another pharmacy.
“Most people don’t appreciate what a great financial deal the Health Center is until they have to pay health costs out of their own pocket,” Barker said.
Rose Cuomo, a freshman in the transition program, visits the Health Center once a week for allergy shots. The Health Center accommodates weekly treatments for many students on campus.
“The nurses I deal with for my allergy shots are actually more friendly than my physician at home,” Cuomo said.
The convenience of the Health Center is its best asset, according to Cuomo. The Health Center is located on Cates Avenue.
“I don’t have to travel anywhere and the physicians have a lot of experience working with students. Everyone is always friendly, and that’s why I keep going back,” Cuomo said.
