Sick students needing additional medical services must provide or pay for their own transportation from the Amelia T. Wood Health Center to Ball Memorial Hospital or other medical facility.
The Ball State University Health Center cannot provide all of the services students need, but most additional help can be found nearby at BMH or the Imaging Center, a place which provides services such as X-rays and CAT scans. In those circumstances, students must find their own transportation.
Although BMH is not technically on-campus, Charlie's Charter escort service will transport students in non-critical situations, Director of Public Services Gene Burton said, It cannot, however, take students to the Imaging Center on White River Boulevard.
"It will take people from Health Center to the hospital if they can walk out to the van and back without assistance and if they have no other problems," Burton said.
If a student is having severe respiratory problems, bleeding profusely or otherwise needs care beyond the basic first aid training the escort driver has, Burton said a University Police Department officer would be called in. If the officer determines the student needs more attention, the UPD policy is to call an ambulance and then let the student decide if they need a ride after it arrives.
The ambulance ride can be expensive, but if the student is seriously ill, they usually take it, Burton said.
The Eaton Emergency Medical Services charges $350 for a one-way ambulance ride to the hospital, billing assistant Lisa Purvis said. People in less critical condition can arrange for a sedan or wheelchair van which costs $20 each way, she said.
The alternative sedan and wheelchair van transportation services have been offered for two to three years, but Purvis does not know of any situations where they have been used to transport students from the Health Center to other medical facilities.
Between 50 and 60 students are recommended to seek additional help at other facilities after receiving care Health Center each week, Director Kent Bullis said. While most of them drive themselves or call and friend, he said, one or two students a day have issues finding a ride.
"Usually someone is able to finally think of someone they can call who can pick them up and take them," he said. "There are probably some students who aren't persistent and don't make a big deal of the fact they don't have transportation."
Occasionally, there are situations when students cannot find a ride, but the Health Center does everything in its power to assist them, Bullis said. However, the Health Center is limited by university regulations and can often only call for an ambulance if a student needs extra assistance.
"We bend over backwards to get a kid somewhere they really need to be," he said. "It tends to hit the international students harder than any other group."
Many of the international students do not have cars at Ball State and rely on public transportation, he said.
Student Government Association Student Services Committee is looking into several ways to assist students with transportations problems. Sen. Danny Gonzales originally looked into expanding the services offered by Charlie's Charter so critically ill students could be taken to BMH.
That is not feasible due to equipment and liability issues, and the services provided by Charlie's Charter are already sufficient, Burton said.
Bullis had two suggestions for improving the transportation. He said he suggested allowing Charlie's Charter to run off-campus to the Imaging Center. He estimated three or four students would use that service daily.
Also, he said he suggested a university car be kept nearby. Policy currently does not allow staff members to drive students in their personal vehicles, but if a car was kept nearby, one of the staff could give sick students a ride.
"If we had one nurse, one office person, who had to leave for 20 minutes to run someone to the hospital we could function," Bullis said. "Whether that's a realistic solution or not is another thing."
Legislation addressing the transportation issue could be coming out of SGA in the next few weeks.
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