Flu season is on its way, and the AU Student Health Center remains in flux, which poses a potential risk to students.
During the summer, five clinical members and one patient representative of the AU Student Health Center community left AU. The exact reasons for their departures are still unknown to the general AU public.
What heightens the situation is that out of the six people who left, the Health Center’s top two position holders resigned: Former Director Daniel Bruey and former Associate Director of Clinical Services Dr. Barry Clark. The University will not release information about why either of them resigned.
Usually when high-profile staff resign, the AU community receives a farewell email. This time, there were no formal emails sent. This should make students question why we have not received any information, especially because it is not normal for a director to leave so suddenly.
In the meantime, AU is struggling to fill the positions. A psychiatric nurse practitioner and a patient service representative were hired, but other positions remain vacant. Currently there are two temporary nurse practitioners and a temporary associate director of clinical services. This leaves the Student Health Center without a permanent, consistent staff during a time of high need as flu season begins. Students are bound to get sick in the few weeks, making it imperative that the University is able to provide quality and timely care.
For most students, both on-and-off campus, the AU Student Health Center is their only option for primary care. The majority of students are not residents of the area and cannot go back home to receive diagnostic advice or immediate care from their home physicians. Because of this, the AU Student Health Center needs to be permanently staffed, especially in the fall and winter months when students are more likely to get sick.
With the staff changing, students should take this opportunity to question the care at the AU Student Health Center. Numerous times students have complained about the mediocre quality of the health center, whether it be the slow process of receiving a prescription or the questionable diagnoses. The AU Student Health Center is still seeking permanent replacements, so if students want to make a difference in the quality of care, now may be the perfect time to make a change.
Transparency and quality of care are two things that should never be sacrificed in our Student Health Center. This problem needs to be fixed quickly, or otherwise AU is going to have a lot of sick students. -E
edpage@theeagleonline.com
