Once a facility of two rooms, the Women’s Clinic now has five to serve more female students thanks to a renovation completed last spring.
Although the renovated clinic opened in April, the ribbon-cutting ceremony presented the new wing Wednesday for spectators, nurses and physicians in the center.
Julie Hupperich, associate director of Student Health Center, said the Center has taken a number of steps in the past two years to increase the scope of services available to students and this is just one installment.
“The Women’s Clinic has more procedure rooms and we have another OBGYN and additional nurses and nurses’ aides,” Hupperich said.
Timothy Honigman, Student Health Center chief of staff, said the need for a larger women’s clinic came because of a number of reasons.
“I knew we’d planned to get a second gynecologist and we didn’t have enough exam rooms,” Honigman said. “As we looked at the building and how this space was being utilized, we realized we could move some things around.”
Philip Hindelang, a Women’s Clinic physician, said the specialty clinic, which provided services for dermatology, ear, nose and throat, dentistry, orthopedics and eyes, previously occupied the space. Special Clinic is now where the smaller Women’s Clinic used to be, he said.
“We used to be in that small cubby-hole and female students had to wait a long time for appointments,” Hindelang said. “The new clinic is more aesthetically pleasing and patients can get the same privacy as they would at a private practice in town.”
Hindelang and Women’s Clinic physician Lauren Ogden had a private practice in Baton Rouge before moving to the clinic full time, Hindelang said. The pair brought with them more medical equipment, he said.
A separate room houses the equipment, capable of doing pelvic ultrasounds and loop electrosurgical excisional procedures.
“Dr. Hingelang said these were office procedures that could be done here without referring patients to private positions,” Honigman said. “He saw a need for it and we have enough space for it now.”
Hindelang said the larger facilities will make it easier for female students to keep up with their health.
“My focus is women’s health, but women in general have more of a need for these services, so it’s important to have a place nearby, instead of trying to find some place in the community,” he said.
Ogden said the move did not happen because the center wanted to attract more patients, but because they wanted to make the clinic similar to typical private practices.
“This wasn’t just about quantity to see if more patients would come, but about quality and making it more like a private gynecology,” she said.