Officials at the Student Health Center should have little to worry about when the center faces reaccreditation next month, if Jane Baker’s inspection is any indicator.
The Health Center is organized and efficient, according to Baker, a surveyor from Virginia gathering facts on The Health Center’s performance.
The staff is friendly, too, she added.
“I would send my children here,” Baker said.
Such findings will help the center when officials from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care decide whether it meets necessary standards for a health center that doesn’t do surgery. The AAAHC is to make their decision in six to eight weeks.
In the past, the center has always been approved for a period lasting three years — the highest approval the AAAHC can grant. Its services show why.
Some of the center’s services aren’t offered at most universities, she said, citing a variety of tests students can get without orders from a doctor or nurse.
“A student can walk in and say, ‘I want a strep test, I want a cholesterol test or a blood type test,'” she said. “I’ve never seen this before.”
The services aren’t just varied, they’re efficient, too, according to Baker.
The center’s use of X-rays is an example of that efficiency.
Only one in a thousand X-rays done at the center needs to be retaken — .1 percent. The average retake rate at most centers is about three percent, Baker estimated.
“It speaks to the competence of the staff,” Baker said. “It saves money, and the patient gets less radiation.”
But not all is perfect at the center.
It’s main weakness, according to Baker, is a lack of space. The center is so small that, were the staff to ever hold a meeting, it would have to use the waiting room.
Though the space is inadequate, the center does all they can with it, Baker said.
“Utilization of the space is inventive,” she said with a laugh. She also said one of the center’s hallways, which has no exit sign, could be dangerous in a fire. The hallway has no windows — if filled with smoke, a way out could be hard to find, Baker said.
But city law prevents such an exit sign because none of the hallway’s doors lead directly outside, according to Dr. Joshua Kaplan, director of Student Health Services.
He then thought of a possible solution: light a sign pointing to a flashlight.
“We’ve been aware of the problem for three years,” he said. “Now maybe we can fix it.”
But, aside from the center’s lack of size, Baker had few other complaints.
“The biggest strength is the staff,” she said. “They have longevity, competence, they’re privileged and accountable.”
