For years, health care facilities throughout the nation’s college campuses have treated students for numerous illnesses and injuries. And for years, many of these students and their families have complained about them.
Increasingly, student health care facilities have come under scrutiny, while significant problems surface at a number of them. With accusations of misdiagnosis, inadequate training and outdated equipment, it is no wonder that some people question how campus health care facilities will be able to handle the COVID-19 pandemic for the upcoming school year.
Scrutiny and accusations
Having had many accusations lobbed at them, campus health care facilities and their schools are on the defensive. Many schools look inward, studying how to overcome challenges while struggling with financial constraints that contribute to these challenges.
Here are some of the issues confronted by student health care facilities:
- Misdiagnosis of ailments that lead to additional patient treatment at other health care facilities
- Mistakes made by the health care staff, leading to unnecessary and erroneous treatment
- Substandard health care
- Health care staff that downplays the severity of patients’ ailments
- Inadequate training among health care workers
- Understaffed facilities at colleges or universities of all sizes
- Students forced to wait lengthier periods than normal to secure appointments
- Facilities’ reliance on outdated medical equipment
- Excessive costs leading some students to forego seeking treatment
Austin is home to the University of Texas with more than 50,000 students, making it one of the country’s largest in the nation. Like other students around the country, the UT student body expects top-notch and reliable health care while living on their own for the first time.