Looking for Student Health Center operating hours info

[Pegasus]

DD and I just attended a 2-day freshman orientation event at the university she will attend in the fall.  Despite already having an older student at this same school, we learned quite a bit.

I would like to provide the school with a recommendation for their consideration. During one of the talks, a representative of the student health center proudly announced the high number of student appointments that they manage each year but noted that it was difficult because students do not want early appointments and most want to come shortly before the clinic closes.  Since they exist to serve the student population, it seems obvious to me that they should shift their hours later, from 8 am-5 pm to something like 11 am - 8 pm.  It makes sense to me to have operating hours extend into the early evening so students have time to follow up on health concerns after classes are over for the day.

I would love to add some relevant information on the hours from other universities and plan to do some Googling to see what I can find.  However, I thought the Hive may be able to provide some information as well for any schools they are affiliated with.

Thanks!

[regentrude]

At DD's uni, student health is open 8-6pm M-Thu, 8-5 Fri, 9-1 on select Saturdays

DS' uni: 8-5 (walk ins 9-11:30 and 1-4)

my uni : 8-4:30 4 days a week, 9-4:30 one day a week.

With classes ending at 9pm, I do not think it is feasible to run a clinic "when classes are over for the day"

 

ETA: our state flagship: 8-5 4 days, 9-5 one day, closed for one hour at lunch, no walk-ins accepted

2nd ETA: I believe the student health centers are funded through a student fee. Hiring staff to work outside of regular office hours would likely require a significant increase of the student health fee.

[elegantlion]

At Ds's university their hours are Monday - Thursday 8 - 4:30, with RNs available during that time. An Nurse Practitioner is available from 12:30 - 4:30 on those days, but not in the summer. 

The operating hours are in line with university-wide staffing hours. 

 

[plansrme]

2 hours ago, Pegasus said:

students do not want early appointments and most want to come shortly before the clinic closes. 

Our unofficial family motto seems apt here:  Suck it up, Buttercup.  Seriously, though--how hard is it to get up at 8 AM for a medical appointment?  Sounds like an excellent, gentle introduction to the real world. 

[klmama]

8-4:30 at dc's school, just like all the other offices.

[regentrude]

4 minutes ago, plansrme said:

Our unofficial family motto seems apt here:  Suck it up, Buttercup.  Seriously, though--how hard is it to get up at 8 AM for a medical appointment?  Sounds like an excellent, gentle introduction to the real world. 

Students also do not want classes in the morning. The whining I get because one of my classes is scheduled at 8am is pathetic.

[Frances]

My son’s university had an award winning student health center that he thought was excellent. It was open M-F during normal business hours. On the other hand, my niece attended a LAC in a small town that had normal business hours for regular stuff, but also a doctor or NP available 24/7. The town did have a hospital, but this saved students from having to go to the ER for minor things or waiting to get care. My niece especially appreciated it when she was an RA.

 

[Momto6inIN]

It doesn't matter, they won't have any appts available for 3 weeks when they call for one anyway ?

At least that's how it was at the university I attended back in the day. I almost died of dehydration from a bout of the flu a few weeks into my freshman year. I had called for an appt and the earliest they could get me in was 3 weeks later. My assigned roommate never showed up so I had a single and I didn't know anybody there very well yet, so nobody was checking on me. Thankfully I called my dad delirious late at night and he drove/flew at like 100 mph to come get me and take me to the hospital. The ER doc told him that a few hours more and I might not have made it. That is a worst case scenario example, obviously, but there were many other similar examples of a shortage of immediate care appts in my 4 years there that happened to both me and my friends. They were great for giving us free birth control, but not so good at immediate care for illness or injury. IME, that's what the majority of kids on campus used the health services for anyway, in which case normal business hours really should be adequate.

Sorry OP that was completely off topic!

 

[8filltheheart]

3 hours ago, plansrme said:

Our unofficial family motto seems apt here:  Suck it up, Buttercup.  Seriously, though--how hard is it to get up at 8 AM for a medical appointment?  Sounds like an excellent, gentle introduction to the real world. 

Those were my exact thoughts when I read the OP.  Don't want to get up for an appt?  Way too much coddling of college students.  They are adults.  They need to grow up.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

8 am is normal at our local universities, too. Do the students realize that some of their peers are up way before that, only a daily basis (in spite of late nights studying), for sports, exercise, jobs, lab shifts, study, or commuter travel? And as regentrude points out, classes can go to 9pm. So it makes sense to just operate during the same hours as the other offices. Students' schedules vary too much to call any set of hours "the" school day for the entire campus.

 

[Bootsie]

At my DC's schools and at the schools where I have taught, the health clinics have operated along standard business hours, with appointments being made until approximately 4 or 5 pm.  IME, much of the desire for late afternoon appointments are situations in which a student overslept and missed an exam and is in an emergency situation of needing a doctor's excuse for the day.   

[JennyD]

The student medical center at the school where I teach is open 8:00 - 4:30 year-round, with additional Saturday morning hours during the school year.  

[Pawz4me]

At DS22's university student health hours were 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and 8:00 to 5:00 on weekends.  The weekends were considered urgent care and there was a $50 fee for visits. There was a free nurse hotline available after hours.

DS19's university's student health is open from:

8:00 to 4:00 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Friday

9:00 to 4:00 on Wednesdays

10:00-2:00 on Saturdays (urgent care/limited services)

1:00 to 5:00 on Sundays (urgent care/limited services)

After hours nurse line available

I see zero reason a student couldn't or shouldn't get himself/herself up for an 8:00 appointment. That's adulting.

[Corraleno]

Regular Student Health Center hours: 8:00-6:00 Monday-Thursday, 8:00-5:30 Friday, 9:00-1:00 Saturday

After Hours Care at the Medical Center on campus: M-F 4:00-9:30 PM, S-S 10:00-5:30

[G5052]

The one at the school DS attends as a commuter student has pretty standard business hours. This is the largest university in our state.

After hours they are told to go to one of the chain walk-in clinics that are nearby that have hours 8am-10pm seven days a week, or to a hospital that is 15 minutes away for the ER. 

As long as they have options, I don't see why a school has to have evening hours. Every service that a college provides costs money. They have to be thoughtful about it.

[daijobu]

Clinic appointment hack:  get the earliest appointment of the day, and you'll avoid delayed appointment times.  Hooray for 8am!  

[daijobu]

Coincidentally, this morning dh read aloud this tweet:

"I once taught an 8 am college class. So many grandparents died that semester. I then moved my class to 3 pm. No more deaths. And that, my friends, is how I save lives."

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

 

I think it makes sense to have hours that work for the clientele (students). As someone who has never been a morning person, no matter how hard I try (I love the sunrise), early hours are rough.  Sure I do "suck it up" when I have to but that is even more challenging when sick. 

[dirty ethel rackham]

On 6/2/2018 at 9:34 AM, plansrme said:

Our unofficial family motto seems apt here:  Suck it up, Buttercup.  Seriously, though--how hard is it to get up at 8 AM for a medical appointment?  Sounds like an excellent, gentle introduction to the real world. 

 

On 6/5/2018 at 1:38 PM, PinkyandtheBrains. said:

 

I think it makes sense to have hours that work for the clientele (students). As someone who has never been a morning person, no matter how hard I try (I love the sunrise), early hours are rough.  Sure I do "suck it up" when I have to but that is even more challenging when sick. 

Yeah, being sick may make it pretty tough to suck it up.  It royally ticked me off to have my student fees pay for a health center that we used to call "Mc Kill Me."  They told me that my flu-like symptoms were no big deal.  I called the next day when I could barely make it to the bathroom to tell them I was much worse.  I passed out at the phone.  A friend took me back over there, I barely remember the appointment, but I got no help.  Just drink fluids, take OTC cold meds and don't get too behind in classes.  I ended up in bed for 2 weeks ... My suite-mate brought me soup and jello from the cafeteria every day.  Fortunately, she forced my RA to help call professors to get me some extensions.  Later, we found out that it was likely mono.   A few years later, I had an ankle injury and woke up the next morning unable to walk.  I had to crawl to the bus stop to go to the health center.  I crawled to the intake desk.  She told me to go to x-ray.  When I asked how, she said "walk."  I showed her my ripped jeans and skinned knee.  She shrugged.  So I crawled.  They took an x-ray.  Said it wasn't broken and told me to ice and wrap it.  I had to beg for crutches just to get back to the bus.  No referral out to the other real health clinic (which the buses didn't go to.)  I certainly hope they are better these days.  Judging by the prescription care we dealt with, it seems so.

OP for your question ...for dd: normal university operating hours ... 8:30 - 5 M-F.  Walk in hours with a nurse: 9-11:30 and 1-4.  Nurse on call after hours.  Referral to nearby urgent care for overflow, after hours urgent needs.  

[J-rap]

My dd's is open from 8-5, M-F.  A doctor is on call 24 hours/day.