If students at Southern Nazarene University (SNU) find themselves down with the bug during this new school year, they need only look to the Student Health Center (SHC) for affordable care. The center provides resources to treat any acute illness that students may pick up on the crowded campus.
When students arrive at the SHC, they can expect to walk away without a hefty medical bill. Students’ $36 health fee, paid alongside their tuition bill, allows the center to offer visits free of charge and keep treatment costs at a minimum.
Angie Hattler, the RN on staff at the SHC, said that students can drop by the center for “anything that you would go to your primary care doctor for” including “cold symptoms, allergies, ear infections, or sinus infections.”
For those who need prescription medications, the SHC houses a small pharmacy that can fill some select prescriptions. This includes antibiotics needed to treat infections; these medications are “at cost, which means what it costs us is what it would cost you guys,” said Hattler.
Medical tests such as blood, strep, TB, mono, urinalysis, and flu can be performed by medical professionals at the center, also at cost.
Over the counter medications are even more affordable, costing students nothing after their initial health fee. Hattler said, “Zyrtec, cough drops, Tylenol, Advil, Midol, and all those things are free—they’re over the counter.” If SNU students need over the counter medications, they can simply stop by the SHC during its open hours.
With the SHC, students who are from other states do not need to worry about finding physicians who take out-of-state insurance. When asked about the convenience of not needing insurance at the center as an out-of-state resident, Jordyn Johnson, SNU student, said, “I bypass all of that stuff to just go see her.”
Regarding the afternoon hours that Dr. Ami Siems was in the SHC last year, Johnson said “people who have labs are in labs and people who are athletes are in practice,” so some people were not able to make it in to see her.
Dr. Siems’ staggered schedule absolves similar problems for students this year.
The SHC is open five days a week—Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.; and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The SHC is closed each day for lunch from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and on Tuesdays and Thursdays during chapel.
Dr. Ami Siems, the physician at the SHC, is available Mondays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Located on the bottom floor of Webster Commons, the SHC is directly to the left of the elevator and stairs.
(Feature photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash; article photo by Jessica Vernier)