Numerous Mason students have encountered the Health Center in their college careers; some of them have had pleasant experiences while others have had the unfortunate mishap with center.
Overall, the Health Center provides students with services such as an allergy clinic, HIV and STI testing, a mental health clinic, and a pharmacy in addition to primary health care.
Samantha Sealock, a sophomore Music and Early Education major, is one of the students who had both good and bad experiences at the Health Center. One of her trips to the health center was extremely positive.
“I had a sinus infection and they gave me some medicine, pretty quickly too.” says Sealock. She also visited the Health Center weekly for an allergy shot. The allergy clinic is open two times a week and is open Tuesdays from 1pm to 4 pm and Thursdays 9am – 11:30am. In this case, Sealock was not content with the Health Center, “They were giving me more that I should get and when I missed a shot it took almost an hour for things to get straightened out.”
Getting more dosage than required made her allergies get worse; and to make matters more difficult Sealock had to take her allergy serum back to her allergist which is in her hometown Manassas, Virginia nearly 20 minutes away.
“I hated the fact that I had to wait 20 minutes at the clinic in line where I can just run in and get the shot at home.” Sealock paid $10 upon receiving each shot because if she had paid upfront for each it would have been more expensive.
However, in light of her allergy accident, Sealock still thinks that the Health Center is a good service, “Because I came every week they were nice and knew who I was.”
Sophomore Allen Danze was not as fortunate with the Health Center. Last semester, in early October he went to the Health Center to rent out crutches for a day due to an injured foot. On the way to the health center, he was late for class and was just looking for a way to get him there faster.
His problem with the Health Center was one of convenience, “I was almost already late for my first class and now they wanted me to get on the computer and fill out all these forms.”
In defense of the Health Center, Danze said that they did want to diagnose him but he didn’t want to go through all the paperwork. The process was inefficient for simply borrowing crutches.
For freshman Janelle Badanes, the Health Center was a convenient and quick fix to a pesky cold. “I made an appointment and that same day I went to see a nurse practitioner and went to the pharmacy.”
She was pleased and surprised with the fact that you did not have to pay to see a doctor. The policy for the Health Center is that payment is only required for a few services, including tests and medication.
However, the center does prescribe medication so that you can take it to a pharmacy and use your own insurance. Badanes felt that it was very easy to be seen by a physician and get a diagnosis without paying a co pay, “I didn’t feel like I wasted my money.”
The only complaint Badanes had with the Health Center was that the front desk was not very congenial but said “In the medical aspect, they’re really nice!”