There's a doctor in the house

Sick students can now breathe a bit easier: more help is available on campus.As of Nov. 4, Health Services can now prescribe students medications and assist other medical needs, Melissa Gallison Blackstone, the director of Health Services, said. Gallison Blackstone is now a nurse practitioner, meaning she can prescribe medication as well as order labs and x-rays.

"We're now doing lab test collections here," Gallison Blackstone said. "A lab will be coming in to pick up the specimens we're collecting. If there's not something I'm certain about, or it's more complex, I can get a student seen by Dr. (Zia) Sheikh's office."

Sheikh is an internal medicine specialist with offices located in Olean and Salamanca. New York State law requires a collaborating physician to work with Health Services.

Gallison Blackstone said this was more convenient for students.

"We used to send people to Urgent Care (at OGH) for many pretty routine things, and that's no longer the case," Gallison Blackstone said. "The people we send to Urgent Care now are people who need to be seen in the emergency room."

Some students agree having these resources available on campus is helpful.

"(It's more convenient to) just stay here," Josh Mattern, a senior sociology major, said. "If you miss classes, you're screwed for the next month or whatever, depending on how you're sick. You just get pushed behind so much."

Mattern also said he hopes this will be an improvement from past experiences with Health Services.

"In my experience previously, and friends I know, they haven't really been diagnosed correctly," Mattern said. "As long as they had someone there who actually knew their stuff, I think it would be better."

Mattern said his experiences with Health Services had not been good ones.

"The biggest thing was that they did not treat correctly, especially the flu and stuff," he said. "They just said 'fluids' and wouldn't give you anything or send you anywhere."

Other students also had unfortunate experiences with Health Services in the past.

"I knew exactly what I had, and they told me to come back at a certain time," Brooke Ehrhart, an integrated marketing communications graduate student, said. "I asked them if they were able to give me a prescription or if they were going to send me to (Olean General Hospital). They said 'Well, we can't give out prescriptions, so we'll probably send you to the emergency center' . They really did nothing for me."

Carolynn Harrington said Health Services was helpful when she had the flu.

"They did a really good job when I was sick," the sophomore journalism and mass communication major said. "The nurse actually called me and made sure I was doing good everyday, like if I needed anything."

Even with these new improvements, some students said they think Health Services still has things to improve.

"There's nowhere to park," Ehrhart said. "So if you're sitting there and it's the middle of winter, you're absolutely, deathly ill and you live in Townhouses or off campus, where are you supposed to park? I've gotten tickets right outside of Doyle when I've been in and out of Health Services, so how do I get there?"

Some students said the hours posed a problem.

"It turned out I had dislocated my finger, and I was looking to get into Health Services to ask them if I had actually done it or not, and I couldn't get in because they were closed," Rory Jones, a freshman biology major, said.

Ehrhart said having someone available for students at all times would help with the problematic hours.

"If there was a way to have a doctor there all day every day, I think that would make things so much easier," Ehrhart said. "They're kind of silly not to have that during flu season, instead of just having someone give you salt, Gatorade and Sudafed."

Gallison Blackstone said the university is committed to further improving on-campus health care for students.

"I know this is something (Richard Trietley, vice provost for student life) is very committed to," she said. "This is my primary commitment - providing health care to students."

kleinaj@sbu.edu