No longer satisfied with the stresses of the treatment of
chronic health issues at the student health center, professional
and graduate students at UCLA have banded together this
semester.
To deal with problems at the Arthur Ashe Student Health and
Wellness Center, these students have created The Chronic Illness
Resource for Student Access Network to collectively address issues
unique to students with reoccurring health problems, said student
coordinator and first-year law student Beth Ribet.
A group of students at the UCLA School of Law recently compiled
complaints about the Ashe Center and are drawing attention to a
variety of issues, including the need to consistently meet with the
same practitioner.
The students have taken the first step by meeting with the law
school’s assistant dean of student affairs, Elizabeth
Cheadle.
“After this semester, I will be meeting with Ashe
management to discuss some of these issues. They were very
responsive and willing to meet with us,” Cheadle said about
conveying the students’ concerns to the health center.
Ribet and the rest of the Chronic Illness Network are suggesting
improvements in both accessibility and continuity of care.
The generally older populations of graduate schools tend to have
different and longer lasting health problems than the younger
undergraduate population, Ribet said.
Ribet, who has chronic respiratory problems and a bad knee, said
she could not get the doctor who reviewed her medical records to
treat her when she scheduled an appointment in advance.
The Ashe Center does not guarantee that appointments made in
advance will be with the requested practitioner.
“With a chronic illness you can’t deal with too many
things in one day; if it all piles up I have to cancel. Eventually
I had to get special permission from the doctor to schedule in
advance,” Ribet said.
The strict same-day scheduling also left little flexibility for
the time constraints of Ribet’s limited mobility.
“On the day of my appointment, the disabled parking near
Ashe was full, which meant I had to park in the general parking
structure. The elevator was broken, so when I arrived fifteen
minutes late I was told my doctor was in a meeting and would not be
able to see me,” she said.
Reoccurring problems are more likely to affect the health care
of students with chronic illnesses, Ribet said.
“We have students dealing with cancer, HIV, diabetes and
respiratory conditions every day, those with chronic pain or
fatigue need providers who will know how last month’s test
results were,” she said.
The chronic illness group however, recognizes that their
concerns may not be indicative of those of the whole student
population.
“(We) have very different issues with the Ashe
Center’s accessibility than healthy students who go there a
few times a year,” Ribet said.
While the associate dean of student affairs and members of the
Ashe Center have not yet met to address the students’ issues,
Michele Pearson, the Ashe Center’s director of ancillary
services said she would need more information.
“We are interested if someone has had a problem. We need
to know specific information about what occurred, if this was a
one-time occurrence, and what efforts have been taken to fix the
problem so far,” Pearson said.
Currently, the Ashe Center sends out electronic surveys to 10
percent of the patients they see. The students’ responses go
into quality of care reports used by management to address problems
and suggest possible areas of improvement.
In terms of improvements, the student network has suggested
siphoning some of the graduate students’ access to the
student health center and instead allowing them to choose to
receive care from the medical center.
In 1999, UC Irvine allowed graduate students the choice of
getting treatment at the Gottschalk Medical Plaza, leaving the
student health center to focus on undergraduate students.
Ribet was a part of the student committee that helped with the
transition at UC Irvine while earning her doctoral degree, before
she came to UCLA.
“Student health was besieged with undergraduates. (The
change) allowed the graduate students to deal with chronic
illnesses that show up in their 30s and 40s,” Ribet said.
In addition, the graduate students say they would like to see a
staff member at the Ashe Center specifically address their
needs.
“We would like to see a point person appointed at the
center who the students can contact pertaining to their chronic
issues,” Ribet said.
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