FULLERTON : Free Health Services at CSUF Will Be Cut

With tuition costs continuing to climb, Cal State Fullerton students have at least gotten a break on health care, thanks to an on-campus health center that has offered a range of services at low or no cost.

No longer. University officials say they will have to charge fees for some health care as early as the spring semester, which begins in February.

Cuts in the state education budget already have forced the health center to switch from a walk-in clinic to a by-appointment facility because of staff reductions, said center director Charles Darke.

Students now pay nothing to use the health center, although some services--such as X-rays and some laboratory work--have nominal fees attached.

Considering the rising costs of health care generally and the decline in state support for the university, Darke said, a fee system may have to be implemented if the center is going to continue offering full services.

“For instance, we don’t charge anything for physical therapy at the moment,” Darke said. “Rather than drop that from our services, we’re going to have to start charging for it.”

Under a new program that will begin in February, students can opt to buy a student health card for $25. With the card, they will not have to pay extra fees for health care at the center.

So far, the appointment system is a mixed success since it was implemented in January.

“It had to be done because we no longer had the staff, and it was an inefficient system,” Darke said.

With a walk-in system, there were peak hours between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. when students would jam the waiting room. “We had enough staff to deal with the peak load, but then they were underutilized the rest of the day,” Darke said.

When the cuts came and the health center staff dropped from the equivalent of 10 full-time health workers to 4.2 workers last fall, waiting times jumped.

“It was terrible--students were waiting up to four hours, and the staff (members) were ready to kill one another,” Darke said. “We had to move to a more efficient system, or the whole center would have fallen apart.”

Besides the switch to services by appointment, the center began screening walk-in patients. Such students are first seen by a nurse who evaluates their condition and decides whether they need to see a doctor immediately or can wait for an appointment.

Now, students rarely wait more than an hour for medical attention. Many are seen within a few minutes.

Dori Kay, a 21-year-old senior, said a recent visit to the health center to refill her birth control pills took only 10 minutes.

“It was also cheaper than I would have to pay somewhere else,” Kay said. With no health insurance, she added, the health center is her only means of medical care.

Timothy Conard, 25, also uses the health center in lieu of medical insurance. He was recently treated for a dislocated thumb and said he never had to wait more than 20 minutes, even without an appointment.

“I think it’s terrific to have a health center on campus,” Conard said.

Would he be willing to pay for the services he receives?

“That,” he said, “depends on the cost.”