by Amy Duschaneck
Features Editor

Students used to running to the health center with middle-of-the-night alergic reactions, nose bleeds and other maladies may have to alter their schedule. Next fall University Health
Services will implement a series of changes which will extend office hours until nine p.m. but take away the staff for the night shift. 

These changes decided were based on the recommendations of representatives from the American College Health Association, which includes the Director of Health Services at Brown
and the Assistant Vice President for Health Services at the University of Arizona. 

The Health Center called in this outside group to assess the quality of care given to students and suggest ways in which they can improve.

Under the new policy physicians and nurse practitioners will be available from nine a.m. to nine p.m. weekdays instead of the current hours of nine a.m. to five p.m. As a result, someone
who can prescribe medication will be at the health center from nine in the morning until nine in the evening.

"Knowing what schedules are...it seems that from five to nine most students will be able to take advantage of the Health Center," said Ruth Blauer, Director of the Health Center.

One side effect of the reallocation, however, is that no staff will be present in the Health Center after nine p.m. Under the new policy physicians are on call 24 hours a day. If a student
calls the Health Center at night a physician will be paged and call the student back.

Although it seems illogical to limit student access to the health center for half of a day, the change was made because last year the health center received 11,000 visits, less than 200 of
which were after 9 p.m.

"Its not a labor force reduction," Blauer said. Instead, she said she considered it to be an issue of reallocating funds and personnel.

Another purpose behind the changes made to the Health Services is to have extra personnel available to prescribe medication during the busy 5-9 hours. Previously only a single
Registered Nurse was available.

"Its a risky situation to try to have one person trying to take care of many problems," Blauer said.

"We’re trying to create a system of one-stop shopping," she said referring to the idea that students can now see a nurse and get medication during the same visit if it occurs after 5 p.m.

Another addition to the health services will be a full-time physician position to be filled by Dr. Davis Smith who currently works for the health center one day a week.

Smith attended Brown University as an undergrad and then attended Case Western Medical School in Cleveland. He is currently Chief Resident of Internal Medicine at the University of
Connecticut. 

Other changes that the Health Center is considering include massage therapy and sports medicine programs.

"We’re trying to be as responsive as we could to the needs of the campus," she said. 

Dean Freddye Hill was also integral in making the decision to change the Health services.