Does your student have a doctor at college (not just student health)

[klmama]

Our pediatrician is retiring soon, and my college student is ready for an internist/general practitioner, anyway.  I'm wondering if we should choose a PCP in the college community, or if we should pick a new one here.  Dc's college is about an hour away, so it's not impossible for dc to come back to see the doctor.  There is a student health service on campus that treats minor illness and injury, does physicals, etc.  What have you and your dc chosen to do?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tree Frog]

My dd is about 3.5 hours away. Because she has been spending more time in her college town and less time at home, she has a doctor there. If she needed to, she could be seen here for an emergency, but reality is she rents a house with 4 other women and that is more "home" to her now than we are. After she graduates and heads to med school, I expect we'll see her even less!

[SkateLeft]

My oldest daughter lives an hour away and comes back here to see her doctor. She has her own apartment, and probably should get a doctor up there now, but she likes the one she has here. For acute things, she just uses student health services on campus.

 

Younger dd is out of state, 4 hours away, but doesn't have a doctor there. She uses student health services.

[Tiramisu]

Every college is different. Some offer free services with a physician, sometimes the doctor is there with very limited hours, some charge. There's a lot of variation.

 

My DD's college does not have a student health facility like many colleges do. She has to go to a nearby medical office that welcomes the students and a college liaison is employed there.

 

Unfortunately, we also have an HMO that does not have providers anywhere near DD's college so we opted to pay for a student health plan. She wasn't that far away but has a history of medical problems, so I needed to make sure she could be seen if anything came up.

 

It's been somewhat difficult and expensive.

[Pawz4me]

DS has aged out of his pediatrician's care but hasn't bothered to find another doctor here at home. He's at his apartment at school much more than he is here. He's only needed to use student health services for a couple of very minor issues but they're capable of handling anything a primary care provider would.

[Laura Corin]

Yes.  He goes to university a long way from home and the university insists that they are signed on with a local doctor.  He can always use the family doctor temporarily if he falls ill at home.

[Mabelen]

My daughter is about 90 minutes from home. She had her last checkup with the pediatrician just after turning age 18, right before she left for college. She has now signed up with my doctor here at home and that's with whom she has scheduled her annual check up for the last two years. She has needed to use her college health center only once so far.

[Ravin]

DH actually prefers to have the student health clinic as his PCP.

[regentrude]

DD's college is 7 hours away. So far, she has been seeing a family doctor at home for preventive care and prescriptions; she can request refills through the online portal. 

 

[TravelingChris]

My dd is 4 hours away.  Her main doctor is here and she has seen him a number of times since she was in college.  She has two specialists there and one specialist here.  Her school has a nurse practitioner in the health clinic and she sees her too.

[Mom22ns]

Both of my kids have kept their PCP at home, but they were both already seeing adult GP's before they left. They both have student health clinics available at school if they are sick, but do their preventative care while they are home on breaks.

 

If they needed a new PCP at this point, I can't honestly say if we'd choose one here or there. Probably here. Neither plan to stay in their college towns after graduation. I doubt either one will bother to move their PCP until they have settled somewhere with a job (and hopefully their own insurance).