Dear Students: Welcome to Bowdoin 2005-2006 from all of us in the Health Services!
In this, my first column of the new year, I wanted to review some of our programs and services and write a little about our sense of mission here at Dudley Coe.
The Health Center staff is happy to see you for a broad spectrum of primary and acute care needs. We see students by appointment. More urgent medical needs are always scheduled for same-day appointments. Especially urgent needs are always treated, well, urgently! Routine physical exams, GYN exams, allergy shots, and travel consultations may be scheduled a few days out. If you want to make an appointment, please call us at x3770, or stop by in person.
All of the care we offer at the Health Center is free to you. Whether you have the new Bowdoin health insurance plan or are covered under your parents' plan, you'll have unlimited access to all of the services offered at the Health Center and the Counseling Center, free of charge. Your insurance policy will cover visits to outside providers and the emergency room, as well as most of the send-out lab tests we may order for you. Pap tests, pregnancy tests, and STD tests for both women and men, including HIV testing, are all paid for by us; to protect your privacy, they will not be billed to your Bowdoin or your family insurance.
While we are all getting used to the new insurance plans, please bring in your insurance card when you come in to see us. It will help us with the paperwork!
Our in-house, formulary prescription medications are dispensed to students free of charge. Our formulary includes over thirty of the most commonly prescribed medications?from antibiotics to generic Prozac to the Emergency Contraceptive Plan B. We also have three top brands of Birth Control Pills (Cyclessa, Desogen, and Mircette) and the vaginal ring (Nuvaring) in our formulary, all available to you free of charge.
Prescriptions for non-formulary medications can be filled at a number of nearby community pharmacies.
Once again, we have a supply of liquid nitrogen, for freezing warts, etc., and we'll continue to offer minor office surgery for moles and "lumps and bumps."
Our Self-Care Room is up and running, and in it you'll find the information, diagnostic tools, and remedies to evaluate and treat?by yourselves?some of your more common ailments. You can also help yourself to a variety of condoms.
We're able to offer all students free tetanus, pneumonia and chicken pox vaccines. In addition, Hepatitis B, Polio and Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccinations are free for students 18 years of age or younger. Travel vaccines and the meningitis vaccine are available at cost, and flu vaccine should be available soon at a nominal cost.
Dr. Avery, from Orthopedic Associates in Portland, will be here again this year on Monday and Wednesday mornings for orthopedic consultations. Mona Alley, R.D./L.D., will be coming to the Health Center on Tuesday mornings for nutrition consultations.
We are eager, as always, to advertise our smoking cessation support efforts. If you're thinking about quitting smoking, want to learn more about your options, or want to help someone else out who may be thinking of quitting, come on in!
We are also eager to hear back from you about your needs and concerns, and about how well (or not!) we are meeting them. Please feel free to contact any of us by email or phone, or stop by to chat. We will also be starting back up our Health Center Student Advisory Group to address these questions longitudinally.
The "Student Guide to Student Health Services at Bowdoin" has been distributed through Residential Life, and we have extra copies if you need one. The guide, written for students by the Student Advisory Group, includes answers to your FAQ's about health care and health issues on campus.
Let me say a few words about our sense of mission in the Health Services. Before coming to Bowdoin, most of you were likely cared for by pediatricians, and likely under your parents' direct and attentive supervision. You might not have had the opportunity to develop independent provider-patient relationships of your own. You might not have needed to be responsible for pursuing your own health care, and you might not have even been expected to understand your own health needs.
This is exactly what we would like to offer you: the opportunity to take charge of your own health care and needs with as much support, information, good advice, and guidance as we can muster.
In providing health care services on campus, we try to emphasize health promotion and disease prevention. We offer preventitive exams and vaccinations, sponsor health education programs, and treat acute and chronic illnesses. We hope to help you gain access to the information, resources and services you'll want in order to understand your own health needs, to pursue your own health care, and to promote and sustain your own well-being.
Finally, there's this, my weekly column in the Orient. It is meant to provide an open forum for discussion about any questions or concerns you might have related to health care, public health, preventitive medicine, health policy, Health Center services, or any other issues involving health or wellness. Please feel free to email me with any of these questions or comments. If published, they would be printed anonymously, but our discussion might benefit the whole community.
Salud! To a great year together!
Jeff Benson, M.D.
Dudley Coe Health Center