Online exclusive: Going to SHAC? Get an appointment

If you’re planning on taking a trip to the Student Health and Counseling Center for a non life-threatening issue, make sure to schedule an appointment first. SHAC’s health services are no longer taking walk-ins.

Director of Health Services Dr. Mark Bajorek said that this is not a new policy, but it is now being enforced. SHAC’s health services adopted this procedure two years ago at the recommendation of an outside health care consultant.

SHAC’s counseling and dental services, however, still provide urgent walk-in care to students.

Students walking into the SHAC lobby create safety, staffing and efficiency problems that hinder the work of the employees there, according to Bajorek. When students do not have an appointment and simply walk into SHAC, “rush hours” of 30 or more students are created and are difficult for SHAC to plan for. 

Bajorek said that student walk-ins make it nearly impossible to adequately staff the clinic. When SHAC doctors, nurses and receptionists have no idea how many students they may see, nor what medical issues the students bring with them, the efficiency and preparedness of the clinic decreases. 

Calling ahead for non-immediate health issues such as prescription refills, physicals or testing services is encouraged so that SHAC employees can prioritize and sufficiently staff the clinic, according to Bajorek.

“[Calling ahead] decompresses the waiting room,” he said.

Making an appointment also helps to stop of the spread of illnesses that can be detrimental to college campuses. 

“From a contagion aspect, a waiting room with 10–30 people coughing and sneezing doesn’t help anyone,” Bajorek said. “When folks call ahead we try to space it out and have a quarantined area or masks ready for affected individuals.”

More importantly, Bajorek said, calling in could also help SHAC prioritize patients; some are simply filling prescriptions while others have a serious health issue.

According to Bajorek, some staff members still try to admit student walk-ins when scheduling allows, though they are strongly discouraged.

Bajorek said that the act of making appointments better prepares students for the real world, where very few primary care facilities have any kind of drop-in system. Additionally, avoiding the walk-in method may save students valuable time. 

“Calling ahead more likely than not gets a student to their answer faster than standing in line,” Bajorek said.