The Ambler Health Center or the Hillsdale Community Health Center?
Vanessa Shuck and Jessica Kneller
Issue date: 10/1/09 Section: Opinion
Vanessa Shuck
Instead of bashing the Hillsdale Community Health Center, which I could not do in good conscience, I hope to offer a few notes of constructive criticism. I do not want to look down my presumptuous eye and judge, but I have had a small share of experience with which I can relate. In the past, it got me through an ear infection, with simple antibiotics, and a cut finger, with some liquid stitches. Every time I've gone, I've received kind and caring treatment from the nurses and doctors.
Last October, however, I began to cough-really cough. I sounded like a seal. And at times I had trouble breathing. I was breathless with a heaving cough as I walked to and from classes. Some friends thought I should visit the hospital, and kindly took me there. So off I went, and they quickly gave me an antibiotic, a Z-pack, and cough syrup and sent me on my way.
Two days later, I was getting progressively worse. I returned with a friend and they took X-rays. They said I had pneumonia and forced me to stay there for three days until they felt I was getting better. However, I found out months later, my X-ray showed no signs of pneumonia. I am glad they took care of me and were so kind, but a mistake like that seems fairly important and cost a lot of money.
They did try many things to help, but a week after I got out, things were still not better. I returned, this time with my other roommates, who were ill as well. The doctors did little to help us. First, they wrongly assumed we all had the same thing: pneumonia, and gave us a incredibly strong antibiotic, for those who don't have pneumonia, which turned out to have serious and painful side effects and served to lower my immune system even more after three weeks of sickness. Overall, those experiences proved to be unhelpful, and more expensive, which in turn raised my insurance premium considerably.
Later on, after it was revealed that I didn't actually have pneumonia, a local lung doctor sent me to the hospital to get tested for whooping cough. When I did go in however, the nurse told me to administer the test (sticking a large q-tip up my nose) on myself. This test, as many may know, is particularly uncomfortable and usually the administer of it goes quite past the point where you would prefer. While doing it myself wasn't so uncomfortable, my doctor later informed me that it was not a very reliable way of testing. I know many have had similar experiences with the tests and treatment at the hospital.
Jessica Kneller
During the bone-chilling days of early spring 2009, I developed severe bronchitis. After two days of nonstop coughing and absolute exhaustion, I hazily decided to make an appointment with a doctor. After ambling down to the accordingly named campus health center, I wrote my name on the check-in list and sat feebly in a corner waiting my turn to see the doctor.
Literally one minute after entering the room, he diagnosed me with bronchitis and prescribed ampicillin. While suspicious of his brevity, I sniffed and nodded as he gave me directions for taking the medicine. Somewhere in my clouded brain, it occurred to me that ampicillin sounds an awful lot like penicillin, which I am allergic to. I questioned the doctor. He glanced quickly at my file and told me, "It should be OK."
A day passed. Then two days. I felt even weaker and wasn't improving. My right eye was swelling shut. When I became unable to walk down my hall without having to rest on the floor, I decided it was time to go to the ER.
After a chest X-ray, nebulizer treatment, two mullet sightings and seven hours in a freezing cold hospital room, I was told that I was indeed allergic to the medicine I was taking, causing my weakness and keeping me from recovering.
As it turns out, the folks at Ambler had pulled the file for Jessica Miller instead of mine. While I am very forgiving when this happens during a telemarketing call, I feel that the doctor or receptionist should have verified my name on the list, especially when I spelled it over the phone.
In addition, the doctor was rather careless to have ignored my concerns about my medicine. Even though the allergy was consequently not in the file he had, warning bells should have gone off in his head.
I am not alone in my dissatisfaction with Ambler. There are students all over campus that have had exasperating experiences trying to schedule appointments or get treatments.
A friend of mine paid the normal treatment fee just be told to take Sudafed and wait out his sickness. Another friend went to Ambler after feeling weak, tired and feverish for several days. The nurse told her that she didn't think there was anything wrong with her and didn't check for any signs of illness. Several days later, my friend was diagnosed with an inner ear infection at the same health center. I still remember her frustration as she suffered severe pain and fatigue, especially since she had tried to catch it early. Her ear infection was so bad that she couldn't keep her balance at times. Such a terrible infection seems like it would have been apparent two days earlier.
I realize that Hillsdale is a small college, but I would really like to be able to rely on my campus health center. While they did try to make it right by waiving the fee, I still find myself dreading ever having to make a return trip. I can't trust them anymore. I try to be aware and keep my eyes open in every situation, but that becomes rather difficult if one is swollen shut.
Instead of bashing the Hillsdale Community Health Center, which I could not do in good conscience, I hope to offer a few notes of constructive criticism. I do not want to look down my presumptuous eye and judge, but I have had a small share of experience with which I can relate. In the past, it got me through an ear infection, with simple antibiotics, and a cut finger, with some liquid stitches. Every time I've gone, I've received kind and caring treatment from the nurses and doctors.
Last October, however, I began to cough-really cough. I sounded like a seal. And at times I had trouble breathing. I was breathless with a heaving cough as I walked to and from classes. Some friends thought I should visit the hospital, and kindly took me there. So off I went, and they quickly gave me an antibiotic, a Z-pack, and cough syrup and sent me on my way.
Two days later, I was getting progressively worse. I returned with a friend and they took X-rays. They said I had pneumonia and forced me to stay there for three days until they felt I was getting better. However, I found out months later, my X-ray showed no signs of pneumonia. I am glad they took care of me and were so kind, but a mistake like that seems fairly important and cost a lot of money.
They did try many things to help, but a week after I got out, things were still not better. I returned, this time with my other roommates, who were ill as well. The doctors did little to help us. First, they wrongly assumed we all had the same thing: pneumonia, and gave us a incredibly strong antibiotic, for those who don't have pneumonia, which turned out to have serious and painful side effects and served to lower my immune system even more after three weeks of sickness. Overall, those experiences proved to be unhelpful, and more expensive, which in turn raised my insurance premium considerably.
Later on, after it was revealed that I didn't actually have pneumonia, a local lung doctor sent me to the hospital to get tested for whooping cough. When I did go in however, the nurse told me to administer the test (sticking a large q-tip up my nose) on myself. This test, as many may know, is particularly uncomfortable and usually the administer of it goes quite past the point where you would prefer. While doing it myself wasn't so uncomfortable, my doctor later informed me that it was not a very reliable way of testing. I know many have had similar experiences with the tests and treatment at the hospital.
Jessica Kneller
During the bone-chilling days of early spring 2009, I developed severe bronchitis. After two days of nonstop coughing and absolute exhaustion, I hazily decided to make an appointment with a doctor. After ambling down to the accordingly named campus health center, I wrote my name on the check-in list and sat feebly in a corner waiting my turn to see the doctor.
Literally one minute after entering the room, he diagnosed me with bronchitis and prescribed ampicillin. While suspicious of his brevity, I sniffed and nodded as he gave me directions for taking the medicine. Somewhere in my clouded brain, it occurred to me that ampicillin sounds an awful lot like penicillin, which I am allergic to. I questioned the doctor. He glanced quickly at my file and told me, "It should be OK."
A day passed. Then two days. I felt even weaker and wasn't improving. My right eye was swelling shut. When I became unable to walk down my hall without having to rest on the floor, I decided it was time to go to the ER.
After a chest X-ray, nebulizer treatment, two mullet sightings and seven hours in a freezing cold hospital room, I was told that I was indeed allergic to the medicine I was taking, causing my weakness and keeping me from recovering.
As it turns out, the folks at Ambler had pulled the file for Jessica Miller instead of mine. While I am very forgiving when this happens during a telemarketing call, I feel that the doctor or receptionist should have verified my name on the list, especially when I spelled it over the phone.
In addition, the doctor was rather careless to have ignored my concerns about my medicine. Even though the allergy was consequently not in the file he had, warning bells should have gone off in his head.
I am not alone in my dissatisfaction with Ambler. There are students all over campus that have had exasperating experiences trying to schedule appointments or get treatments.
A friend of mine paid the normal treatment fee just be told to take Sudafed and wait out his sickness. Another friend went to Ambler after feeling weak, tired and feverish for several days. The nurse told her that she didn't think there was anything wrong with her and didn't check for any signs of illness. Several days later, my friend was diagnosed with an inner ear infection at the same health center. I still remember her frustration as she suffered severe pain and fatigue, especially since she had tried to catch it early. Her ear infection was so bad that she couldn't keep her balance at times. Such a terrible infection seems like it would have been apparent two days earlier.
I realize that Hillsdale is a small college, but I would really like to be able to rely on my campus health center. While they did try to make it right by waiving the fee, I still find myself dreading ever having to make a return trip. I can't trust them anymore. I try to be aware and keep my eyes open in every situation, but that becomes rather difficult if one is swollen shut.
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