Does anyone know how good the UChicago student health service is?
It’s been pretty mixed for my D. The thing that really bothers her is that there are No walk in available times. Everything must be scheduled way in advance and when you are feeling like crap or have something urgent you are directed to go to ER at UChicago hospital which my daughter hates. She had two really bad experiences at UChicago ER and just walked out on one occasion because their bedside manner was so horrible in the ER. Getting back to the clinic- the appointment and front desk staff do not get high ratings from her but the nurses and doctors have been pretty good with the exception of one time that kind of proved to be pretty consequential to her when the doctor let an infection go on for too long and resulted in having to have a very long recuperation that basically blew her summer. She lost her internship and had to lay low for this summer. Seriously it could have been worse because the infection may have required surgery because it just wasn’t treated aggressively enough the first appt.
Do not recommend UChicago ER but she had a great experience with UChicago specialists- specifically cardiology that quickly diagnosed a problem that had baffled the pediatric cardiologists in her hometown.
We ended up taking her to Northwestern and had great quick ER care there.
It was a good but scary lesson for my daughter. You must be your own health advocate in these health care system and demand appropriate care. Luckily, her dad and I were in Chicago when the last health care crisis happened and I stepped in to help her.
Why not use CVS Minute Clinic on 53rd for some things like strep tests or ear infections or flu shots? Or is that just too crowded? You should be able to hold your place in line via the website. I live a comfortable surburban life and Minute Clinic works great for me and my family- but not sure how well it would function in an urban area.
Could be wrong here and my experience with UChicago is decades old now but I found that Student Health was pretty pathetic - some of the nurses were mean and ignorant (I don’t recall ever being seen by a doc). When I lived in HP but in between grad programs (so wasn’t a student) I used the regular physicians’ group and got much better care including an accurate diagnosis of acute iritis by a sharp resident ophthamologist (had never even heard of iritis - I thought I had pink eye). Have heard excellent things about their cardiology practice there but no direct experience.
Used ER once and got excellent care but the problem there is that you are triaged and the mentally unstable person who was brought in by the cops is always going to get priority unless you are in pretty bad shape yourself. It’s an urban emergency dept. near some pretty rough patches of town so that’s just to be expected, esp. at night or on weekends (when most emergencies occur). ER’s are notoriously inefficiently run and at a teaching hospital such as UChicago you are likely to get a grumpy resident who hasn’t slept for awhile. That doesn’t mean you won’t get good care - but it won’t be the most pleasant experience for you. NM might be better if you can catch a ride or uber up there. When I’ve been there I was triaged quickly for my minor problem, but others I know have been stuck there too for several hours. A lot depends on time of day.
Surprised they don’t have urgent care or some type of drop-in facility on campus (other than ER). That’s really all that most students need!
In addition to it sounding awful, I think our deductible for ER is $600. What’s the student fee for, if you can’t use it for minor, non-ER problems, sheesh.
I just checked the Minute Clinic Wait Time which is 37 min. (approx) (Edit: Sat. 2:30 pm CT). That’s not really all that bad when you consider that you can hold your place via online, then call an Uber or bus over to the CVS. Let’s say you think you have strep - so have your place held at Minute Clinic then call Student Health and see which can get you in faster. If it’s the latter, make the appt., cancel out Minute Clinic, and get on your way to Student health. Either way you have some options.
That may not be the most “cost effective” method of treating an ailment but it’s sure going to be more time-effective. Time is a scarce resource as well and when you are feeling cruddy all you want is a diagnosis and treatment ASAP.
When we tried to hold our place in line here (not Chicago), the first time I went through the whole 5-minute procedure of picking a time … and then it ended up saying "this function not available; the second time, we got there, and still waited for two hours, and then they tried to close the place up at the end of the evening (we needed flu shots, pointed out we’d made an appointment and had been in line for 2 hours, and they let us in). YMMV.
It’s also not in the community’s interest to have people walking around for days or weeks with untreated strep throat. But I guess they put their resources where they want to.
@Lea111 I’ve never tried to hold my place at our CVS down the street but now I’m curious as to how well it works. Guessing you are correct about YMMV - we are in the suburbs of Minneapolis with a sizable number of options in the area. Would imagine it can be a very different story in Chicago and probably elsewhere.
I agree that minor emergency clinics nearby would be appropriate in things like a flu or strep but would not have been what she needed in both of her situations. It would have been great if that had been the case. With the infection that wasn’t aggressively treated in the first visit the health center gave her an appt too far out then when it worsened they would not schedule her in earlier. Just referred her to ER if she felt that it needed more prompt attention. Also, the health clinic and UChicago are so close to BJ dorms that it’s terrible she doesn’t have much confidence now in something so accessible.
It sounds like the university health clinic isn’t appropriate for big OR small things. That is a shame. There is value in continuity of care, and yes, convenience, for a population that is famous for being extremely busy. You’d almost think they could charge the kids a fee for access so that they could staff the facility appropriately. Oh wait, they do charge the kids a fee for access. What do you get for that? I guess … flu shots if you want them and can plan in advance?
Can’t really see how one can plan in advance for a strep test. This is why not having walk-in appointments even in evening is just weird and using ER for walk-in is beyond inefficient. However, neither of my other college kids have decent student health either so I’ve always assumed it’s just the way it is (would that be true at HYPS or Columbia/Penn, however, is the big question. Or how about NU?). The advantage of ER is that if you need follow-up they can discharge you with instructions to see a regular doc (not student health). The advantage of Student Health is that they don’t get overwhelmed with requests from the outside community (it’s for students only). There should be a good balance of quality in there somewhere.
Harvard and Princeton both had walk-in services when I was a student. So it hadn’t occurred to me that UofC wouldn’t. But neither H nor P had an ER or hospital on campus. The one time DD used student health services at UofC she had to wait a week (and they wanted her there 20 minutes before her appt, something they didn’t mention at initial scheduling, so it created a conflict with a class), but it was an issue (back pain that didn’t seem to be severe or the result of trauma) where that didn’t seem unreasonable. I didn’t think the 20 minutes early thing was unreasonable either, but I mention it as a heads-up for kids who might not know to factor that in when making an appointment.
SHS at UChicago had walk-in when I was there. Wondering if they triage you ie suspected strep or other infection gets in more quickly. You can’t wait a week for something like Strep or a UTI.
Curious - how much does a strep test without insurance at the ER cost? (Not suggesting that long wait at the ER, staying up all night when you are very sick and have a course load the next day, etc., aren’t a big deal too. But as I said, our ER deductible is $600. Actual ER does not seem like a reasonable solution to get a strep test.)
We had walk ins until last year. They told us they switched because it was inefficient to make people wait in the waiting room for hours and was just spreading things.
That makes sense, so long as students can actually get timely appointments as needed. Forcing the option of waiting int he waiting room of the Minute Clinic for hours - or worse yet, a hospital (!) - isn’t going to decrease the spread of disease, though. http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/5-infectious-diseases-you-might-get-in-er.htm Or having kids walking around, going to classes, for a week with strep throat.