Students said recent changes to the Colonial Health Center will increase accessibility, but some said officials should further expand operating hours to ensure students always have quick access to health care.
Officials opened a new health care clinic on the Mount Vernon Campus and added two extra weekend urgent care hours last week. More than 30 Vern residents said the changes will improve health care efficiency and accessibility on the campus, but some students said the Vern’s clinic should operate on Saturday and past 4 p.m. so Vern residents always have access to care.
“Everybody should have access to health care, but we’re students, and having to spend a lot of time and effort and money trying to figure out how you can be seen by a doctor just seems like a waste of time and energy,” freshman Brianna Hawley said.
Urgent care was previously available from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays at the CHC, and the center was completely closed on Sundays. Students can now receive care from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays at the CHC and Sundays in Merriweather Hall on the Vern.
Hawley said infrequent Vern Express departures over the weekend inconvenience students who need to attend appointments at the center. She said the extended hours give students more time to see a health care professional without having to rush to the center before closing.
“Especially if there’s going to be a long line at the CHC, you don’t really want to stay there for half a day when you’re sick just to get seen,” Hawley said. “If you have one right next door, it makes the process a lot easier, which is super beneficial.”
Freshman Jane Wilde said sick students who used to take the Vex to Foggy Bottom for the CHC placed healthy riders at risk for catching their illnesses. She said the Vern’s clinic prevents them from spreading their sicknesses to others on the Vex and in other public areas.
“It’s really important to emphasize student care so that we don’t spread whatever illnesses happen in this very crowded space we’re all living in,” Wilde said. “It’d be really good to skip going on the Vex at all and to be able to just stay on the Vern until you’re better.”
First-year student Sofia Campo said the lack of health services on the Vern has concerned her in the past because she cannot quickly access emergency care. She said the Vern clinic eliminates lengthy commutes to the CHC, which operates on a separate campus.
“If anything happens here on the Vern, the closest thing would have been to take a 15-minute Vex and then walk to the Marvin Center or the GW Hospital,” Campo said. “It’s just so much more accessible and much needed.”
Last year, more than 10 current and former Vern residents said they lacked quick access to health care services.
Some students said establishing a health clinic on the Vern is a good “first step” to increasing access to health services for Vern residents, but medical and mental health services should operate more frequently.
Junior Tyler Kusma, a resident adviser on the Vern, said most of his friends who live on the Vern are unlikely to travel to Foggy Bottom on the weekends because of the long commute. He said the extra open hours are a “positive first step” to better student health care, because Vern residents who are sick should be resting instead of spending energy traveling to Foggy Bottom for medical attention.
“You’ve got to start somewhere, and having one day a week of that urgent care is better than no days,” Kusma said. “I definitely hope that they start to expand it out and have more than just one day.”
Students said that extended urgent care hours offered in the afternoon rather than in the morning give students more flexibility to attend the clinic, because sick students won’t want to wake up early or may begin to feel ill after the clinic closes.
First-year student Metaksenia Evangoulis said her eye once swelled during an allergic reaction, but the CHC was closed at the time. Evangoulis said she walked to the CVS MinuteClinic close to the Vern, which was inconvenient because she felt too weak to walk.
“You can’t choose when you get sick, so if you’re sick at a time the clinic is closed, that’s not helpful at all,” Evangoulis said.
First-year student Simone Saraiya said the extended CHC hours and Vern clinic will benefit students seeking mental health care assistance. She said properly attending to students’ mental health needs will create a better environment for students who live on an “isolated” campus like the Vern.
“Mental health especially is a big deal now,” she said. “Especially as students, we’re constantly working, we need to have that access, we’re not going to want to run to the hospital 24/7.”
