Getting injured or sick at college is never fun, because it causes additional stress as students seek out resources like medicine. These resources may be costly or only available off-campus. Luckily for Augustana students, we have access to the Augustana Convenient Health Care Clinic. However, the clinic should be more convenient.
Missing class due to illness or injury may cost students academically, and those who don’t have reliable access to transportation can’t easily go out to the drugstore to get medicine or to a hospital, preventing them from getting better quickly. According to the Augustana website, the campus clinic offers walk-in and scheduled appointments, but wait times may be long and hours are limited.
Sara Schwartz, a nurse at the Convenient Health Clinic for Genesis, says that after working at the clinic for several years, there are important things students should be aware of.
“I’ve been here since we opened in 2020, and we see a variety of kids, but one thing that’s best for them to know is that they have to have a photo ID and insurance card,” Schwartz said. “It is important because their visit is covered by the college but any testing or labs we do is sent to their insurance.”
The website also says that the clinic covers drug prescriptions, but according to Schwartz, drug prescriptions are actually not available at the clinic and the website needs to be changed.
The unavailability of drug prescriptions for students means that students will generally have to see a doctor off-campus. This creates an extra step for students, and a barrier to receiving care if they do not have available transportation.
“It’s daunting that it says certain things which we can’t treat, [which] makes it difficult for the students,” Schwartz said.
In the past, there was a medical shuttle that would take students to nearby hospitals and clinics, but when students look up the Augustana medical shuttle, ACES shows up instead. Without a way for students to get to the hospital, they will not get treated for injuries. Students not being able to find a resource, like the medical shuttle, is effectively the same as not having the resource at all. This may hinder students from getting across campus and accessing much-needed prescriptions.
My experiences with the clinic have been mixed. In my first year, the clinic helped treat my sprained ankle, but when I was a junior, asking for a COVID-19 test led to obstacles. At the time, students had to show symptoms of COVID-19 to be tested at the clinic, which doesn’t help when you’ve been exposed and have yet to experience symptoms. While this has since been resolved, students still face difficulty when being treated at the clinic.
Without the campus clinic, students wouldn’t be able to get the help of medical professionals on-campus when facing illnesses like a simple cold or the flu, but there are ways the clinic could be more convenient for students.
Going to the campus clinic is easy, as it is located on the way to the Gerber Center, a path familiar to many students, and walk-ins are welcome. However, it is difficult to get the care students need.
Students who want a guaranteed visit can schedule an appointment through the campus clinic webpage and click on a time that best works for them. Using this tool is helpful and doesn’t cost anything, but not all students have the time to schedule appointments. Illnesses can pop-up suddenly, and there are a limited number of appointments available per day. Combined with the number of students on-campus and the prevalence of health issues, these factors can cause long wait times.
The Augustana Campus Health Clinic has helped students since its beginnings during the start of the pandemic in 2020, but it could improve by adding consistent medical transportation, timely information on the Augustana website, prescription options and shorter wait times. To make the campus clinic convenient, these improvements must be made.