Ball State University students seeking excuses for missing class is one of the primary factors contributing to long wait times at the Amelia T. Wood Health Center, medical director Kent Bullis said.
"Frequently we will write notes that say, 'Such and such had a sore throat a few days ago. Please excuse him from class. He is now healthy.'" Bullis said. "It is silly and a waste of time."
Ball State does not implement an institution-wide policy on sick notes, he said.
"It doesn't really matter if we give a student an absence note because it is up to each instructor whether or not to punish the student," Bullis said. "If we could eliminate the class notes, we could alleviate some of the wait time."
University administrators agree eradicating class notes may ease some of the congestion at the health center. But June Payne, director of counselling and health services at Ball State, said educating students about the reasons for the delays, the developments underway to improve services and the use of the health fee is imperative.
HIRING A DOCTOR
Bullis said a number of recent enhancements are expected to augment the plethora of services the health center provides. The most significant of these enhancements was the recent hiring of a new doctor, Raymond Chua, in October, Bullis said.
"I am counting on Dr. Chua to make a huge improvement in the wait times," Bullis said. "The nuance of that is that he replaced a nurse practitioner, and physicians tend to see patients more quickly, more efficiently."
Since Chua started at the health center, Bullis said wait times had dropped dramatically. In the last week, wait times have ranged from about five minutes to an hour, which has been standard for the past few weeks, Bullis said.
Although the hiring of an additional full-time physician is expected to cut down on the time it takes patients to be seen, Bullis said the nature of an urgent care facility is another reason.
"It is a walk-in basis and while we would like to staff the health center so that there is never a wait, we would have to staff 30 to 40 doctors," Bullis said. "That is not cost-efficient. It would cost students an excessive amount of money if we were to do that."
REDUCING WAIT TIMES
Even with an additional doctor, students said the wait times are still too long.
"I waited in the waiting room for about two minutes, but once the nurse did all of the blood pressure and heart rate tests I had to wait an hour before a doctor came in," Karl Wagner, a 27-year-old junior majoring in telecommunications, said. "I was about to leave and go to the emergency room because my back was killing me. But I don't have health insurance, so there really wasn't any other option. I had to wait until after Thanksgiving break to come in here, and they just charge it to my Bursar's account."
To minimize some of the pressure on the health center staff, Bullis said he plans to expand the health center Web site to include medical information to help students become more sophisticated in their self-diagnosis and treatment.
"The number one thing we treat is the common cold, bronchitis, sinusitis," Bullis said. "I want to include information on how to overcome these sorts of complaints without having to visit a doctor. It is important for students to become much more sophisticated in terms of when and when not to see the doctor. That is just a part of the educational experience."
Payne said the long wait time was a result of the high demand. If students are not satisfied with the current system, she said the alternative would be scheduling appointments, which has several inefficiencies.
"Being a walk-in facility, we can see more people," Payne said. "If we opt to have scheduled appointments, we would have to figure out what the problem is and decide how long we would spend with each patient prior to them coming into the health center. That slows the process down."
Payne said the scheduled appointment approach is not a good model when dealing with acute illnesses.
"The nearest appointment could be two weeks out," she said. "When we have students dealing with sicknesses such as upper respiratory infections, they need to be seen right away. I suspect students would be much more unhappy if we were to move to scheduled appointments."
Payne added an appointment does not guarantee less of a wait time.
"When you go to your health care provider after leaving the university, the reality of it is you are going to wait," she said. "If you see a specialist, you will need an appointment and you are probably going to have to wait."
PAYING FOR CARE
Bullis said another possible alternative would be to move to a co-pay system, but charging students fees, in addition to the mandatory $66 health services fee each student is required to pay every semester, is not the solution, Bullis said.
"A health fee is only a limited disincentive," Bullis said. "If we introduce a co-pay of $20 or whatever, it would dramatically decrease the number of students who will come in to be seen. But then we would also have a lot of students with serious health problems that would not spend the five bucks to be seen."
Although many students complain about the health fee, Payne said the health fee is less than what students can expect to pay per doctor visit once they leave the university. The student health fees are used directly to support the health center, Payne said.
"Nurses and physicians are outsourced to Cardinal Health," Payne said. "Ball State uses the health fees to pay Cardinal Health to support the program in the Health Center. Many students will look at the fee and say that they never go to the Health Center. But over a four- or five-year program, it is hard to say that you will never go. It is available if a student ever needs it."
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