(Jessica Betancourt)

When sophomore Ann Trimble became ill in the middle of the night last spring, she thought she had food poisoning, so she went to the SMU Memorial Health Center. She received excellent care.

“The nurse was like a mom to me, she took really good care of me and wanted me to keep her updated even after I left,” Trimble said.

Maddie Holmes, a sophomore, says her sister was misdiagnosed at the health center.

Holmes’ sister went to the health center when her tonsils started to swell.

“Her tonsils were the size of golf balls, and the Health Center said ‘tough’ and sent her away,” Holmes said.

Later, her sister found out she had tonsillitis and had to get her tonsils removed.

“It’s just left a bad taste in my mouth,” Holmes said.

The SMU Health Center treats students every day. Some, like Trimble, leave feeling like they’re received first-rate healthcare. Too often though, students say they are misdiagnosed and rushed through appointments.

“A lot of my friends say that they will not go to the health center, they’ll go down the road to Primacare, or another clinic,” said Susan Watkins, a junior who says she was misdiagnosed at the Health Center. “They feel that they will be talked to a little more and have better luck being treated there.”

Partick Hite, executive director of Health Services, agrees that the doctors at the health center move quickly.

“The doctors are young and they tend to move you along, but again, they’re dealing with a population that is young and healthy,” he said.

The health center has a staff of about 17 people who serve the entire student population of almost 11,000. They have two doctors on duty in the mornings and three in the afternoon.

Hite believes two doctors in the morning and three in the afternoon is sufficient. He said doctors don’t feel overwhelmed by the number of patients they treat.

Complaints about the health center range from the routine to the nearly tragic.

In May of 2007, Javier Espinosa, then a senior, went to the health center complaining of cold-like symptoms, as reported by The Daily Campus in 2007 (maybe we should put a month). He continued to visit the health center over the next three days. His symptoms worsened, but the health center did not refer him to a hospital.

He subsequently checked into Methodist Hospital on the recommendation of a doctor from San Antonio, his hometown. Espinosa received a liver transplant. He said doctors told him if had not had the transplant he would have died within two hours.

Hite said he did not remember Espinosa’s case, but said cases like that are extremely unusual and the health center is usually very quick to refer patients to a hospital or a specialist.

“I think if you look at the broad spectrum, medicine is not an exact science, so there’s always a possibility of that happening. The medical care here is as good as I’ve seen it anywhere, but yes, there’s always going to be an occasional mishap,” Hite said.

Few cases are so extreme. Still, other students say they have learned to be skeptical.

Alexandra Hammack, a junior, went to the health center last fall during exams.

“I thought I had allergies; it was around exam time and I was tired, more so than usual,” she said.

A doctor told her she was probably right, and sent her home without a blood test or a prescription. A week later, she tested positive for mononucleosis.

Watkins says she has been misdiagnosed at the health center. She visited in September with a rash on her leg. The doctor told her it was a fungus and gave her a steroid ointment.

“I called my dad, who is a doctor, and he told me that steroids would make a fungus grow,” she said.

She visited a dermatologist who told her that the rash was just adult eczema and gave her a different treatment.

Watkins wishes that the doctors at the health center would spend more time talking to her when she has an appointment.

Dominique Ouellette, another junior, agrees. She last visited the health center this January when she had the flu. She said a doctor took her temperature, and told her it was too late for treatment and all she could do was go the drugstore and buy Motrin to control the fever.

“I was like ‘Wow, I just got up at 6:45 to get here and all you did was take my temperature and talk to me for two minutes and make me leave.’ It was really frustrating,” she said.

Hite explains that walking out with a prescription in hand does not necessarily merit a successful doctor’s visit.

“Patients are always happier if you tell them there’s something wrong, and they always seem to be happier when you prescribe some kind of medicine,” he said.

He said if students leave the health center with an over-the-counter medication and then go to Primacare and receive antibiotics, it gives the health center a “black eye.” Making the customers happy keeps a clinic in business, he said, even if a patient doesn’t really need the antibiotics.

Emily Epstein, a junior and Ouellette’s roommate, visited the health center after Ouellette found out she was sick. After waiting in a room with 30 other students complaining of flu-like symptoms, she talked to a nurse and was sent to a doctor. Although she wasn’t given any medication to treat her symptoms, she felt like she had a positive experience.

“They do as much as they can within reason to help. I feel like the health center gives great treatment for being an on-campus health center,” she said.

According to Epstein, Watkins and Ouellette, students expect sub-standard care from a university health center. All three agreed that it’s impossible for so few doctors to give top-notch care to such a large number of patients.

Meghan Quillen, junior, compared it to an emergency room.

“The doctors are so busy, it’s hit or miss,” she said.

Vicki Owen, a sophomore, has never been to the health center, and said she probably would not go, even if she were sick.

“If I needed something I would like to think I could go to the health center and get the treatment I expect; good treatment like I would get at home, but I don’t know that that’s necessarily true,” she said.

Hite maintained that the doctors are not overwhelmed with appointments, but he said he is aware of the negative impression some students have of the health center.

He said the student perception of care they receive is greatly influenced by the appearance of the building. The health center still looks like it did when it was built in the ’50s. Medicine is a field assumed to be on the cutting edge. Hite said that if students walk into an old-fashioned looking building, they might perceive care is outdated.

“We’re somewhat limited in our scope here,” Hite said. “We probably take care of 85 to 90 percent of what a student needs medically. There’s about ten percent we’re not able to do. We need a new building and we don’t have the latest MRI equipment, but the qualities and qualifications of the physicians are going to match anybody else’s in a similar setting.”