SGA looks to extend health service hours

By Jonathan Sampson
Staff Reporter

When Marna Jane Williams accidentally cut her hand on broken glass at 9 p.m. she went to the Health Center for help. She knocked on the door and rang the doorbell, but no one answered. She finally found a friend to give her a ride to an emergency room, where they immediately helped her.

Brian Wood, Student Government Association president, said TCU students, like Williams, need to have access to health care at all hours in case a problem arises. He said SGA wants to evaluate students’ needs and send a recommendation to administration, but Health Center representatives said they think the current hours already meet the needs of the students.

John Terrell, director of health services, said the center is currently open from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

He said a nurse is available in the office Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. He said the center has had the current hours for about five years.

Wood said he disagrees with the current hours, because emergencies can happen at any time.

“It’s odd to think that students will only use the Health Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” he said.

Terrell said the center used to be open 24-hours a day, but there was not enough volume to justify a 24-hour service.

“Most of the (students) we saw in the evening … needed to go somewhere else,” he said.

He said it would be ridiculous to have a full staff at all hours, and he said that if a center cannot be fully staffed, it’s safer to be closed.

Williams, a freshman biology major, said there should be some way to get medical assistance on campus at any hour.

But Terrell said most centers around the country are moving in the same direction as TCU’s Health Center.

Karen Coffey, director of medical records at Southern Methodist University’s Health Center, said their hours are similar to TCU. The center is open from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The SMU center changed from 24-hour service to the current format because of cost, she said. The University of Texas at Arlington also has similar hours.

Phyllis Hubbard, medical records manager at Baylor University’s Health Clinic, said they are open from 7 a.m. to midnight every day, because Baylor requires the clinic to stay open until the building, in which it is located, closes. They also had 24-hour service two years ago, she said.
Terrell said that if students need help during hours when the Health Center is closed, they should go to an emergency room.

Wood said he worries that without the Health Center’s consultation, students might not get a proper diagnosis or might not seek help at all.
“Some things that happen with students would not be handled properly,” he said. “They would only receive a student’s version of a home remedy.”

He said that as a resident assistant in Milton Daniel Hall, he has had three people go to the hospital for things that the Health Center could have handled.

Financing a 24-hour Health Center at TCU would exceed SGA’s physical and financial capabilities, Wood said. He also said he is unsure how much it would actually cost to change the Health Center schedule.

“We can’t appoint student representatives to be medical emergency people,” he said. “But we can see what the student need is and take that to administration.”

Williams said she felt her accident needed immediate attention, and she was worried when she was unable to find help on campus.

“I really don’t know what the solution is,” she said. “But I think something should be done.”

Jonathan Sampson
j.m.sampson@student.tcu.edu