After months of consideration, the Student Health Center has eliminated X-ray and overnight laboratory services, redirecting over $100,000 this year to extend business hours and increase a pool of part-time clinicians to help meet seasonal demands.

In place of the departed X-ray and lab services is a new relationship between the Health Center and Wood County Hospital.

Student Health Services will provide transportation during their operating hours to and from WCH for patients who need an X-ray. Student employees will drive minivans back and forth between the two facilities. Patients will also be billed at a lower rate if they come to SHS first and are then transported to WCH, according to Dr. Glenn Egelman, director and physician-in-chief of SHS.

“This is a very good partnership we’re starting with Wood County,” Egelman said. “It’s a win-win situation.”

Laboratory tests that take more than one day will still be conducted at the Health Center, but will now be sent to WCH. Rapid tests for Strep Throat, mononucleosis, blood counts, quick urine and other tests that take less than one day will still be done in the Health Center laboratory.

Starting this semester the Health Center will be open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and Friday 9:20 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. These hours reflect an increase of two hours from the fall semester, when closing time was 5:30 p.m. The extension of operating hours was also the result of feedback collected from a student survey conducted by Student Health Services in October, according to Egelman.

“We’ve taken our resources and shifted it to areas that serve the most students,” Egelman said.

The change is good news according to Vice President of Student Affairs Edward Whipple, who said that days of operation will be “dramatically increased” this semester, to the tune of an extra 10 hours per week of availability.

“This [increase] represents almost six weeks additional availability to students compared to one year ago,” Whipple said.

The pool of part-time — or “on-call” — doctors and nurses has also been increased to help meet the fluctuation of patients that come to the Center with seasonal ailments.

Undergraduate Student Government President Alex Wright can see the benefits that will come from having on-call staff members ready to meet the demands of seasonal sickness.

“To me this makes good sense,” Wright said. “I am sure the Health Center is hit hard during cold and flu seasons … Hopefully these part-time clinicians will help keep the waiting time down at the Health Center during peak hours.”

In order to free up money and resources for the hours extension and on-call physicians, three staff positions at the Health Center have been eliminated, though each of the three employees have been offered other positions at the University.

One part-time employee from the Medical-Technology department has been rehired part-time in Pharmacy. The second employee was offered a part-time position as a cashier in Dining Services, but turned it down. The third employee — previously part-time — has accepted a 10-month full-time position as a Statistics Clerk in the Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search, which is an outreach program geared towards bringing underrepresented students to the University.

Each of the three new positions would be a reduction in pay for the employees, according to Marsha Ann Serio, manager of employee relations in the Human Resources Department. In addition, three other senior employees were bumped down to replace these employees and faced either a reduction in pay or hours as well, Serio said.

Updated laboratory costs provided by SHS show that only one of the Sexually Transmitted Disease tests that are being outsourced to Wood County will reflect a price increase. The traditional gonorrhea swab test will be $15, an increase of $4.50 from last semester. New and less invasive technology has also been adopted by WCH to test for gonorrhea, and while the costs will be higher, they may be welcomed by male patients.

The traditional swab testing procedure involved an often-times painful removal of tissue from a male’s urethra, or inside of the penis. The new option costs more at $21, but patients can now give a urine sample and receive more accurate results from what Egelman has deemed “a much kinder and gentler” form of testing. Wright has joined Egelman in appreciation of the latest health care technology being offered to students.

“I think more students would opt to have tests performed if they were less painful,” Wright said. “Although I wish we could get the service for the same price, it is understandable that the price may be higher.”

With all the changes that have been made this semester by SHS, Whipple hopes that students understand they should still come to the University’s Health Center for their health care first before looking elsewhere.

“A key issue … is that there will be absolutely no change in service to the student,” Whipple said. “Students still come to Student Health for all their laboratory [and X-ray] needs.”