Student Healthcare Goes Above and Beyond on Campus

With the upcoming elections, there has recently been a lot of talk about healthcare in the media. This is an extremely important issue to me for a couple of reasons. First, I’m just one of those people who are always fighting off some infection. I catch everything. If someone I know has a cold, I catch their cold plus pneumonia. I don’t know what is wrong with my immune system. Maybe I didn’t eat enough Flintstone’s vitamins when I was a kid. (Actually, I probably ate too many. Those things were delicious!) The other reason healthcare is pretty high up on my list of socially important priorities is that not only do I frequent doctors offices but I also do not have health insurance. This would be potentially problematic if it weren’t for my success with the UNM Student Health Center.

Every time I mention the words: student health center, I see people’s faces scrunch up in distaste. These types of inexpensive healthcare faculties have bad reputations for being ineffective with poor patient care. I’m here to tell you that at the UNM Student Health Center this is not the case! I have personally used its services throughout my long student career and have never had better care.

The center offers inexpensive basic healthcare for students enrolled at least part time. They do offer health insurance to students each year but, their doctors’ visits only cost twenty dollars. That’s about the same or less than a co-pay through an insurance company anyway. Lab work is of course paid for by the student but, lab costs are much less expensive than that done for private practices and lab results come back in usually about an hour!. Patients can be seen by appointment or through the walk-in clinic anytime. Also, students are explicitly told to notify a nurse or other staff members if they are kept waiting for more than twenty minutes in line, in the waiting room, or in an exam room. Anyone who has spent the dreaded hours sick and waiting in a doctor’s office knows what a rarity that is!

The doctors, nurses, and physician’s assistants are the most amazing aspects of the health center. They are always thorough and never give you that sense of needing to move on to the next patient. I had another example of this excellent medical care recently. Over the winter break I was sick for a few weeks with a couple of different illnesses and was seen at the student health center. I was intensely ill and was urged by the staff to come back to track my progression several times over the course of three weeks. Every few days my doctor would call me at home to check up on me! Then she would ask me to come in to do follow up exams, which I was not charged for. With five doctor’s visits, several prescriptions, and extensive lab work, my total cost for the entire three weeks of care was only 100 dollars. I would challenge anyone to find a medical practice with better patient care!

I could go on and on about the amazing experiences I have had at our health center. My best advice is to experience it for yourself! I urge all UNM students and staff to utilize the many services provided by the health center, even if it’s just to get a cheap flu shot or to pick up your prescription in between classes. I’m graduating this semester and am sad to give up the student health center as my medical sanctuary but, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to use it these last years.