Karen Coffey (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)

Broken bones. Horrible colds. Rashes. The flu. Karen Coffey, SMU’s Memorial Health Center receptionist and medical records specialist, has seen it all.

“Something really crazy is always happening here,” said Coffey. “When you think you’ve seen it all, something else happens and once again it amazes me.”

Coffey is the first face you see when you walk in the door of the Health Center. She greets each student in the same way – with a warm smile and an eager ear. Coffey sympathizes with the students, and believes that often they are looking for a mother figure to comfort them.

Coffey started working for SMU seven years ago when her oldest son, Garrett, enrolled at the university. She stayed when her middle child, Mollie, also chose SMU. Now, she is here because she loves her interaction with the students.

Coffey has the hardest job at the center, say her coworkers, because she deals with the students and their parents. And fielding all those calls is not an easy task.

“Karen has no lunch break and her days consist of dealing with calls from parents,” said Dr. Nancy Merrill, medical director for the center. “But she has an amazing bedside manner and does it without hesitation.”

Merrill tells a story about the time a student fainted right in front of Coffey’s sign-in window. Coffey immediately aided the student by jumping up and grabbing her before she fell to the ground, which saved the student from bigger complications, such as a concussion.

“This is the kind of thing that is she is always doing for the students, putting them first,” said Merrill.

Coffey would love to see the Health Center, one of the few buildings left at SMU that has not been remodeled, get a facelift. That would allow everyone who works there to be more productive and effective, she said.

An air conditioning pipe recently burst in a front office and flooded the entire front area of the center. Coffey said that this is the third flood the Health Center has had in seven years.

As of March 8, repairs were still underway, and the office will not be functioning normally for at least another six to eight weeks, Coffey said.

Coffey hopes that this might help signal to SMU officials just how badly the Health Center needs to be renovated.

Dr. Merrill agrees that some repairs are needed and that updates will help everyone from the doctors to the front office function more productively.

“It is just an extremely hard task finding the right time when we can do construction on the building,” said Merrill. “The main goal right now is to have a fully operational Health Center for the students, and hopefully soon, when time and circumstance allow, we can proceed with renovations.”

Coffey said that confidentiality and comfort are extremely important, and she hopes that any renovations would include a new front desk that would allow more privacy. Now, said Coffey, students sometimes feel uncomfortable signing in and talking about their problems because others in the waiting room can hear them.

Each day the Health Center sees between 75 and 100 patients. Visitors, who come in for doctors’ and nurses’ visits and pharmacy and lab work, all check in and out at the front desk.

Coffey admits that some kids come to the center for a “get out of class free” card, but some come because they have no idea where else to go. The students who are ill and need care are the ones that Coffey goes out of her way to make sure get help.

Jennifer Stuart, a junior Economics major, uses the Health Center as her primary source for health care because the student health insurance makes it extremely affordable. She always notices the kind way that Coffey treats her, whether it’s on the phone or in person.

“She does whatever she can to fit me in if I am sick and make me as comfortable as possible when I walk through the door,” said Stuart.

Charlotte Rohr, a nurse practitioner at the center, said she notices the wonderful way Coffey deals with each patient.

“She has a great way of discerning which students need to be seen quickly,” she said.

In her spare time Coffey enjoys watching hockey, helping her youngest daughter with her homework and extracurricular activities, and sitting down to read a good mystery book.

Coffey loves everything about her job, but the relationships she has formed with her colleagues are especially important to her.

“It is my friendships with the women at the Health Center that keep me coming back,” she said.