Don't get sick at college
 

Today's Wall St Journal has an article about how a lot of schools are closing their infirmaries and contracting with doctors in the community to cut costs. Also they talk about how overbooked and understaffed the infirmaries are...pretty scary actually.

No more scary than Hudson Health Center was when I was a student.

There were so many quacks in that place that you thought you'd walked into a Daffy Duck cartoon.

I'm actually pretty happy with my campus healthcare system. Maybe if I went to a big state school, I'd have more cause for complaints. My school is so tiny, that you can go in at most times and be seen within minutes. The only real complaint I hear from students regarding our Health Services is that whenever one comes in for many ailments, it's assumed that it's either an STI or pregnancy. One of my friends claims that the nurse basically told her that she was in denial about being pregnant (she came in with backaches). Gah!

My health center is awful. I have so many awful stories about friends of mine being misdiagnosed. A friend of mine had a cyst of some kind inside of his throat. The doctors told him that it was strepth (even though you could see this thing...it was huge!) The thing kept getting bigger although he was on antibiotics. Got to the point where his throat started to close up. By the time he got to the ER (he was having trouble breathing), the thing had popped and created a nasty mess all over the ER.
I've gone in for colds and flus and was prescribed the Z-pack. These are antibiotics. They're trying to cure a viral infection with antibiotics!!!! This is one of the reasons why bacteria is becoming resistent because people are taking antibiotics for viral infections.

Our student health services department is pretty great in my opinion.

My college hired community physicians to serve the campus. Actually, it worked out better because before there was only one doctor on staff, and he could only see you between 7:30 AM to 9 AM. We're a small campus, but still! Plus, it was way too difficult to get out of bed at 7:30 AM when you are sick!

Here is a typical scenario with our campus nurse -

"Nurse, nurse! My leg has been chopped off!"

"We'll fix you right up! Here is some salt!" :p

and it's not as scary as our health building. You go in with an ear infection and they try to tell you it's gonhorrea.:rolleyes:

Our med center was pretty pathetic. Their favorite diagnosis was pregnancy. No matter what was wrong with you, you were pregnant. Even if you were male. :rolleyes:

DeltAlum- did they give you the choice between the red pills and the white pills? Seriously it's probably ever worse. they didn't bother to read the allergy charts of one of my sisters and almost killed her. i'd rather go to an independent doctor in Athens County.

Fronske Health Center, at Northern Arizona University, is ok...I mean they do seem to like to be convinced you are pregnant (even after you just said you are menstrating...sigh)...but other then that they are pretty quick and not too bad...My current big problem is that they are $20 per visit unless you have the school's health insurance...Then you add that I have an out of state insurance company so I really cant go to a doctor off campus without being charged more...I liked my copay in california of $10...

The school I transferred from had a terrible campus health center! Their answer to everything was to go to walmart and buy equate medicine.

I'm not too sure about the campus health place here .. I haven't been there yet...

Yup. In those days, if we could still walk, we'd drive to Columbus for help.

The health center at Cal State Long Beach is pretty good! They had doctors available all day and have an onsite lab, pharmacy and even a room where they can do EKGs and stuff. They also had a dietician, gynacologist and, I think, a psychiatrist.

The students don't have to pay for their consultation and the over the counter meds were discounted.

I mentioned to one of the doctors that I was (at the time) covered by my dad's Kaiser Permanente plan. She told me that she herself was a Kaiser doctor who did rotations at our uni. So, in effect, these are "real" doctors and not some cut-rate slackers.

The nursing staff was really cool.....and, in all of my many visits over my 6 years as a student, I was never accused of being pregnant. :)

Thumbs up to the CSULB health center!

....Kelly :)

Oh my goodness....our health center at Mizzou is AWFUL!!! I could go in there dying of something or with my arm chopped off and they would still probably give me Powerade. Powerade is the answer to every problem apparently! That and extra strength Sudafed....doesn't matter whether you're pregnant or you have the Ebola virus, according to them red Powerade and Sudafed will cure EVERYTHING. :rolleyes:

My friend went in there b/c she had some weird bump on her back, it was so gross, and they told her that it was nothing abnormal. Just a natural bump in her spine, whatever the hell THAT is?! :confused: She went to the real hospital later on and found out that it was a cyst and she then got it removed. :rolleyes:

The health center here can be good for certain things. In the counseling dept, top notch. Their women's health is pretty good too. Never a complaint. Their general clinic and lab? Ha...that's why we call it the "death center". I went having serious problems w/ my lower GI tract and even after medicines, 2 stool samples (I've never had a worse moment), and lab work out the yang, they still had no answer. It took another doctor to figure out I had IBS. And they prescribe antibiotics like nothing else. The only good thing I can say is that when I had food poisoning they took pretty good care of me.