The West Coast University Student Health Services

West Coast University Student Health Services - Primary Care Clinic

• The West Coast University Student Health Services

• Student Health Service (SHS)

It's a service that serves medical needs of 34.700 students of the West Coast University (WCU). The undergraduate students are required to be enrolled in the medical plan, and are about 23.769 students. For graduate students is not required be enrolled, but it is usually chosen. Almost half of the students of WCU used the SHS.

SHS offers care in a primary care clinic and in other specialty clinics. Offers several services, as dental services, HIV testing, social services and so on. It has a laboratory and proceed to most of routine lab procedures in-house.

-> The students have to pay a registration fee and SHS is principally funded by that fees. To the registered students there are many services available without an additional charge. Services that are more specialized or more extensive are available for a minimal fee.

• Primary Care Clinic (PCC)

Nurses and nurse practitioners provide care, and for the continuation of care, patients are encouraged to choose a primary care clinician to act as a principal health care provider. This clinician could be also a good resource for other health concerns and not just as a basic health needs.

PCC offers a service that do not require an appointment, called the walk-in care. As the walk-in spaces are limited the patients are sometimes asked after a triage nurse to return another time when a particular doctor or nurse are busy. Clinicians are used to separate appointments and follow directly with the patient, without the need of a triage. These appointments are scheduled every week, also referral appointments can be scheduled on specialty clinics.

Those specialty clinics provide specialized care to patients when referred by an SHS clinician. Services include immunization, dermatology, orthopedics, surgery, internal medicine, allergy, head and neck, ophthalmology, urology and neurology.

Between SHS, Specialty Clinics and PCC, PCC it is the only walk-in clinic. Patients could walk-in and normally works without appointments and with a first-come-first-serve basis. It is more used for common treatments of colds, fever, nausea, warts etc to more serious problems like chest pains, hepatitis and emergencies.

SHS is open from Monday to Friday, from 8a.m to 5.pm, with a lunch break during noon to 1p.m.

• PCC Staff

The staff is divided into full-time (if work more than 30 hours per week) and part-time, and consists on Nurse Practitioners (NP), Physicians (MD), Medical Assistants (MA) and support staff