Student health services to open in August

UW Tacoma is on the verge of officially opening its first Student Health Service, a project that was four years in the making. The service, which was allocated $230 thousand last spring by the Student Activities Fees Committee, is now set to open in August of 2010. Though organizers had hoped to open the service in Winter Quarter, there were several roadblocks that slowed the opening. "It takes longer to work through all these approval processes than I think any of us expected," Director of Student Health and Wellness Jeri Carter said. Initially, a committee set out to find a healthcare provider that could meet the established budget in a Request for Proposals (RFP) process. While the provider was chosen at the end of last November, the name cannot be released until after a date is set for renovations to begin and a contract has been signed. Just as important as the provider was finding a space to put it in. The original location for the service, in the Student Health and Wellness Suite on the second floor of the Mattress Factory, was decided to be too far from bathrooms and running water to be used. Now the center will be located in Laborers Hall on 19th and Market Street. Additionally, much of the process had to be approved in by officials at the Seattle campus, causing further delays. "We went through a very, very thorough process," ASUWT Vice President and are in the works. Changes must be made to bring the building up to code in addition to a build-out for the center itself. Because the building is already in the university's real estate portfolio, most of the changes will be financed through an auxiliary fund, keeping roughly $225 thousand of the student-provided funds free for outfitting the building. "Once the students come in, they're just focused on the health service operation," Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cedric Howard. Though the center will open more than a year after the process began, the want for a healthcare on campus is much older. The idea came up in a campus life survey from four years ago. "The two things students felt most passionate about were a student union and a health center," Howard said. In fact, Longshoremen's Hall could not be used as a space for the service because of plans to renovate it to create a student union in the future. Howard noted that this will be the first building on campus that was proposed by, paid for, and used by students. "I think that's a major accomplishment from a student perspective," Howard said. Once complete, UWT's Student Health Services will be staffed by a nurse practitioner, a Licensed Practical Nurse, and a receptionist. The space itself will feature a waiting area, two exam rooms, file rooms, and a space to process basic samples and labs. The service will provide students with what Carter calls "a basic safety net" of care. Students will be able to receive emergency care, schedule exams, or get a flu shot at no additional charge or at minimal costs.While the provider will be able to write prescriptions they will have to be filled off-campus, and additional services that must be provided off-site (such as labs or X-Rays) will be offered on a fee-for-service basis. "This is going to benefit the students on a very large scale," Mumtaz said, and encouraged students to use the facility once it is open. "We're all, students and staff, really excited to get this going," Carter said.