A healthier campus
The Student Health and Wellness Center has expanded services to spouses and student dependents.
In a meeting Friday, the Board of Trustees approved the change.
Spouses and children of students will now be able to receive the same health care that students receive, for a fee of $35 a semester. The student rate of $26 a semester will remain the same.
“We feel this is a win-win situation,” said Dr. Jim Davis, director of the Student Health and Wellness Center. “We are the primary care provider for students. Many have asked us, ‘why can’t I bring my children here?'”
Services at the center include a pharmacy, physical therapy, an X-ray lab, and free consultation with doctors. The fee allows unlimited access to all of these services.
“Our biggest strength is that we already have the infrastructure in place,” Davis said. “We have four exam rooms and two offices ready and waiting to see spouses and children.”
Davis said he sees a need for a program like this due to the large numbers of married students on campus. He also said this program is timely considering rising rates in health care.
“Charity care [in the community] for students is being cut,” Davis said. “Their rationale for that is if a student can afford tuition, they can afford to take care of themselves health-wise, too.”
Now spouses and children of students will be able to receive healthcare for an entire semester for less than one visit at a private clinic may cost.
Davis said he hopes offering these services to the families of students will prevent them from “running up bills they can’t pay.”
Offering these services also provides advantages for the Wellness Center, Davis said. Hours have to be cut, and many of the staff are sent home during the summer when many students leave Logan. Students with spouses and children tend to stay in Logan during the summer semester.
Now that children and spouses are allowed care at the center, the center will have less-difficulty staying busy and filling appointments, Davis said. The Wellness Center currently treats 35 to 38 percent of students on campus.
As the new program is put in place, pediatrics at the Wellness Center will increase. The center can be expected to serve as a walk-in health service.
One member of the trustees asked if obstetrics will now be offered as part of Wellness Center services. Davis replied that they will not, but may be in the future.
In other trustees’ business, the MyDoom virus was discussed. Barbara White, vice president and CIO for information technology, said another attack is expected Tuesday but that her team is “in this for the long haul.”
At the first outbreak of the virus the system was receiving 40 attacks per minute and more than 160,000 e-mails were infected. White assured the board that surveillance of the virus will continue around the clock.
Also present at the meeting were representatives from Innovation Campus who presented aspects of the Innovation Campus Master Plan that will carry it through the next 40 years.
The first two phases of the five-phase project are expected to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $110 million.
-bnelson@cc.usu.edu