Samantha Edmondson
Daily Egyptian
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The SIU Board of Trustees approved an $8 million plan for a new Student Health Center facility during its meeting Thursday at the SIU School of Medicine in Springfield.
Projected for completion by FY 2005, the new 4,000-square-foot, two-story building will connect to the existing Student Recreation Center on Grand Avenue.
Cheryl Presley, director of Student Health Programs, said the Illinois Board of Higher Education will likely approve the project budget and plan at its next meeting slated for Aug. 20. The University will then accept architectural designs, and the Physical Plant will begin construction approximately 18 months after a final design is selected.
Presley said Student Health Programs started to develop the new facility project about two years ago. She said that when the BOT approved the Land Use Plan, an expansive project for campus building, the new student facility was on it.
Though some of the funding had been approved, Presley said the program needed to find alternate sources of money. Without state funding, Presley said another avenue was to increase student fees.
In April, the Undergraduate Student Government passed a $20 Student Health Center fee increase, raising the average student fee from $110 to $130 per semester for next year.
Michael Jarard, USG president, said USG's fee approval indicated that is what the students wanted to receive, and they got it. "With the current condition of the one we have, it is about time we get a new one," Jarard said. "I believe it is a priority on this campus, and we can't let the health services program fall to the wayside."
Presley said the students have shown a large support for the new facility, regardless of the increased fees. She said the fee will decrease the next fiscal year by $5, and then by 3 percent after that.
"The second stage is you have to get the student support, especially when you are fee-based," Presley said. "That is exactly what the students did; they really came together this year.
"For less than what it costs for one visit to a doctor, they will have a knew facility and access to it."
Presley said the old buildings have problems a new facility would fix. Old wiring in Beimfohr Hall has prevented some central air conditioning, so most of the rooms have window units. Another problem is room availability per doctor and patient visit.
"We can only room one student at a time per doc, and they have to get dressed and leave before the new patient can be brought in," Presley said. "And we have four and five people in any one office space; it is just really inefficient.
"This program is accredited, the same way all medical facilities are, but we are practicing medicine in residence halls."
Currently, health programs for students are spread throughout campus in five different locations. Presley said it is hard to integrate all the services together without them near each other.
As part of the new facility, existing programs will be expanded, and new equipment and services will be added to Student Health Programs. Once in operation, the facility will close the gap between medical and psychological services, as well as provide an ambulance for emergencies, holding beds for patients and a possible optometry center.
Presley said other areas that Student Health Programs would like to expand is men's health services, specialized cardiac rehabilitation and psychology services - particularly alcohol and drug services.
The largest asset to the new facility is the Urgent Care expansion. Dale Vorbrich, director of Urgent Care, will continue to lead the Urgent Care department. He said the majority of problems patients have when they visit Health Services is episodic diseases.
"They are infections, sore throat, bladder infections, accidents, orthopedic problems, follow-up visits," Vorbrich said. "We feel we see a lot of the same things an emergency room sees but, obviously, we are not a trauma center."
He said he hopes the expansion will provide a larger space and those added services that the current medical center cannot provide. Vorbrich also said an important asset to the new facility and Student Health Programs is the location.
"There are a lot of students who get sick their junior year who say, 'we didn't even know you were here,'" Vorbrich said. "We are going to be over in the main flow of things, near the students."
Presley said the continuity of services in the same facility will make health programs easier for the student as well. For example, if a patient comes in for an eating disorder, the dietician, medical doctor and psychologist will all be in the same building instead of different areas.
"It affords us the opportunity to be more efficient, because students are busy," Presley said. "Our mission is to help the students stay in school and remove those physical or psychological barriers that would make it harder, so we need to be accessible."
Reporter Samantha Edmondson can be reached at sedmondson@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
