First-year students at The George Washington University complain that the Student Health Center’s shortage of appointment availability, high wait times, and lack of necessary medical equipment keep it from providing adequate care to students. 

 

The university markets the Student Health Center as a place where students can seek accessible and high-quality healthcare on campus. First-year students were startled to find that the medical appointments they booked weeks in advance often left them waiting over 30 minutes, only to receive inconclusive medical care. 

 

“I got there 15 minutes early, like you're supposed to, filled out all the paperwork, then I waited another 30 minutes,” Maggie McHugh said. “All in all, I communicated with three people, and none of them were very receptive to anything that I had to say.”

 

The students’ challenges with the health center begin when they attempt to book an appointment online. The scheduling site can be accessed through the Student Health Web Portal, which all university students receive access to upon enrollment. The portal holds all medical clearances, appointment history, and lab results from GWU-affiliated medical services. 

 

Medical appointments on this site are often booked weeks in advance, which is not helpful when students have more urgent needs. Common college doctor visits, like a cold or an injury, cannot be predicted weeks ahead of time. This delay has led many students to visit the clinic long after they originally needed support. 

 

“The first time I was sick, last semester, I was only able to make the appointment in like 2 weeks or something like that. I was pretty much healthy by that point,” explained first-year student Kasey Tierney.

 

Other students have reported needing to wait up to 6 weeks before they could book an appointment that works with their schedule. The Student Health Center is only open from 8:30 to 6 on weekdays, closing an hour earlier on Fridays. With no availability on weekends and relatively early closing times during the week, many students struggle to find an appointment that fits in their school and work schedules. 

 

In addition to limited appointment availability, long wait times are experienced by students who visit during the busiest times of day. Even for students who arrive 15 minutes before their scheduled time, as recommended, there are consistent delays that keep students from being seen. This is challenging, especially when these appointments often interfere with the common workday. 

 

“I always have to wait over my time for any appointment. It'd be 10:30, and I'm there until like 11:00 just waiting,” said another first-year, Keira O’Brien. 

 

Some students believe that the scheduling and wait-time challenges are due to inadequate staffing at the Student Health Center. Only 18 medical professionals work at the center, including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and registered nurses. This small group of people is asked to facilitate the healthcare of all 25,400 undergraduate, graduate, law, medical, and professional students on campus. 

 

The staffing seems to be sufficient for most days on campus, but when flu season comes around, the waiting room is often packed full of people. Even though the Student Health Center does not take walk-ins, the wait time for appointment-holding students becomes multiple times greater than on a normal day. 

 

“I feel like they just don't have enough people for a school that has 12,000 undergrads. I think they have, like, 9 therapists, 2 psychiatrists, and then like, 10 doctors,” first-year McHugh said.

 

Even when students do make it to their appointments, they can feel rushed with the doctors not taking enough time to fully understand the issue before diagnosing. Before attending an appointment, patients must fill out a questionnaire explaining their concern, medical history, family history, and allergies. This is supposed to help the medical staff tailor their treatment to the individual patient.  

 

This is especially true for students managing chronic medical conditions away from their specialists, something the center’s website claims they assist with. That being said, students have reported that the doctors have ignored their medical history, prescribing things that the patient has already tried and did not work. 

 

“It didn't seem like they had an understanding of the entire medical history context. Even when I told them that, they still prescribed me the wrong inhaler,” O’Brien said. “It genuinely felt like they overprescribed me things.” 

 

Other students found that the medical advice they received was not as helpful as they had hoped. The center does not have lab or radiology capabilities in-house, and while they refer students to nearby facilities, this means people are not getting the care they need quickly.

 

Students visited the clinic this semester because of concerns about an injured finger and possible pneumonia. In both situations, X-rays were recommended by the Student Health Center doctors, but because of the lack of equipment on site, their care was delayed until they could get an appointment at a different, more expensive clinic. 

 

“I had a cough, and it was bad. Plus, I have asthma, which gives me a higher chance of pneumonia and stuff like that,” Tierney said. “They were just like, you could, or you could not have it. We don't really know, which wasn’t helpful at all.” 

 

First-year student Maggie Smedley added, “The medical staff assume the worst of your symptoms. It just kind of put me and the people around me into a panic, thinking my finger was really screwed when it was actually not.”

 

That being said, first-years still think the Student Health Center can be useful in some situations. The students are more likely to return to the clinic if they have a clear idea of what they think they will get from the visit, especially if it is a prescription they cannot get otherwise. 

 

Students believe visits are most beneficial when the medical concern can be solved with one visit and a prescription. When a student is looking for a cheap, close, and succinct experience, the Student Health Center can be the best choice. 

 

“The doctor came in, and he was very straight to the point. I told him I think that I have pink eye, he prescribed me antibiotics, and I went to pick them up,” Smedley explained. “It was a very simple process, so that was beneficial.”

 

Smedley recommends that other students call the Student Health Center office if there are no appointments available online, noting that they have squeezed her in if someone recently canceled. She also reported greater success booking telehealth visits, though the doctors sometimes have more difficulty diagnosing her virtually than in person. 

 

The Student Health Center is not the place that students on campus turn to when they need a serious medical opinion, but it acts as a good supplement while first-years settle into living away from home. Local urgent cares and the GWU Hospital serve the community too, and while they can be more pricey, first-year students think they are the best option if you want a real diagnosis. 

 

“It was not the best experience, but I'm not going to not go back because they were bad,” McHugh said. “They were just slow and kind of suck. But I got a lollipop!