Student Health Services not serving students

By Emma Cox
Campus Editor

As a part of enrollment fees, Hutchinson Community College students have access to the Hutchinson Area Student Health Services, located north of campus at 516 E. 14th Street.
The student health center is there to provide services for students who fall ill or have minor injuries.  They prefer that students call in and make appointments instead of just walking in. Jessika Ratzloff is the admin for the student health center, and said that the student health services prefer appointments to be made to better serve their patients. “If a person walks in, we do our best to see them, but if other appointments are scheduled, then the walk in will be scheduled to come back for an appointment.” Ratzloff said.
It’s understandable that they can’t do certain things such as surgeries and prescribe medications to care for HutchCC students but it has been noticed by some students that they could do more for them.
Due to provider availability, the hours of the health center have temporarily changed to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings 8:30 to noon. These hours are posted at the college information desk in Parker Student Union.
But even with these new hours, several students including a few of The Collegian staff members, have been having a difficult time communicating with health center
Sophomore Jack Greenwood, a Collegian staff writer, had a first-hand experience at this a few weeks ago when he got the flu.
“I was feeling bad enough that I couldn’t walk straight, so my roommate was with me.”  Greenwood said.  “We called the health center during their hours but they didn’t answer.”
Greenwood left a message and his number in hopes that someone would call him back as soon as possible.
Greenwood and his roommate ended up going over to the Parker Student Union, and Greenwood said his roommate asked the receptionist if they would be back, and they were told if they weren’t there by now they wouldn’t be open, and that the health enter hasn’t been sticking with their regular hours so they should check back to see if someone was there every so often.
A similar incident was experienced when The Collegian attempted to reach out to them for comment. After calling several times between their posted hours of 8:30-noon, The Collegian was directed to voicemail which said to call back during business hours – which we were.

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