Health center implements new check-in system

The Daily News

The Amelia T. Wood Health Center features a new check-in system this semester. The system is made up of a freestanding computer that gathers the student’s information and then transmits it to the staff to prioritize the waiting room. DN PHOTO JONATHAN MIKSANEK
The Amelia T. Wood Health Center features a new check-in system this semester. The system is made up of a freestanding computer that gathers the student’s information and then transmits it to the staff to prioritize the waiting room. DN PHOTO JONATHAN MIKSANEK




With a new check-in system at the Amelia T. Wood Health Center, students are no longer “just a number.”


The program, which debuted at the start of the school year, allows students to input their name and reason for a visit instead of just taking a number. 


A freestanding computer at the Health Center transmits the student’s information to the office staff workers and helps them assess the needs of those who are waiting, in a way the old system did not. 


Health Center director Kent Bullis said the previous number system received a lot of negative feedback from students. 


“Students expressed an emotional reaction to pulling a tab,” he said. “Emotionally, a lot of students feel like they are treated as a number or they feel like cattle. There were negative emotions and environmental concerns.” 


Bullis said the office workers pay attention to the faces of students that enter, but this gives then another avenue to evaluate distress. 


“If someone enters and they are bleeding or [have] severe abdominal pain, it will pop up on our interface and give the staff an opportunity to intervene for people that have no business being in the waiting room,” he said. 


A hand sanitizer is mounted on the wall next to the computer for students concerned about germs, but Bullis said other things are likely larger germ hazards, like the front door knob. 


He said the new system, like any change, has seen some confusion in the first two weeks of class, but the implementation is going well. 


The computer check-in cost around $2,500, which came out of the general operating funds of the Health Center.

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