Johnnies get new health services

For years, Johnnies walking into the basement of Mary Hall to visit CentraCare braced themselves for hundreds of dollars in medical expenses. Now, that is no longer the case.

The new CSB/SJU Health Services opened its doors at the beginning of this semester, forming a joint service with the model currently in place at CSB. This change shifts the control of healthcare for SJU students from the CentraCare clinic to a university-ran health initiative.

“A college health center isn’t just a clinic,” Director of Health Services Emily Rath said. “We know folks on campus to help our students, because if you’re coming in with a concussion, I know how to get you in touch with student accessibility services; I know how to communicate with our athletic trainers. I think some of those things were missing when you have an entity that wasn’t embedded in that college environment.”

In the past, the CentraCare clinic functioned much like a typical doctor’s office, with a cost for scheduling a visit and payment through insurance. Now, Johnnies can walk in and schedule an appointment free of charge and use the Health Center in the basement of Lottie at CSB.

A common example given that outlines this change is a visit due to strep throat. Under this model, a Johnnie could make a visit for free, pay $5 for a strep test, and pay $8 for antibiotics. At CentraCare, the visit itself would come at a price, the strep test would take place off campus, and the antibiotics would cost more.

“I think the most exciting part of it is that it’s a low barrier access to health care,” Executive Director of the Well-Being Center Mike Ewing said. “Because of the way we’ve designed this, the office visits are always $0, the labs or assessments, if we can do them on campus, are at cost or near cost, and the procedures and the medications, if we can do them on campus distribute them at campus, those are at or near cost as well.”

The SJU Senate was a driving force in this change, led by 2020-21 Trustee Representative Jack Scheck. Scheck brought attention to the issue, which caused senators to begin lobbying for change.

Then, when CentraCare chose not to return for the 2021-22 school year, SJU Vice President of Student Development Mike Connolly reached out to the Senate over the summer asking if they wanted to shift to the new model. The Senate jumped on the opportunity, providing $75,000 for the project in a unanimous vote on June 17.

“The Senate is here to make direct impacts in students’ lives,” SJU Senate President Connor Kockler said. “I think sometimes it can be easy to see the Senate as, ‘Oh, we just sit and just debate about stuff,’ but my goal for this year is I want students to see that we are making tangible, direct impacts in making students’ lives here at St. John’s better.”

The school used the $75,000 contribution to renovate the space in the basement of Mary and make healthcare access free for Johnnies. The school’s goal is to make it free in the spring, as well.

In the future, Johnnies may have to pay a fee at the beginning of the year similar to the $330 health fee Bennies currently pay.

Along with making services cheaper for Johnnies, the joint model provides easier means of communicating students’ issues between departments.

“It really better integrates all of our services together,” Ewing said. “When CentraCare would refer someone to us last year, we were a different system, so we didn’t necessarily know they referred them, and now we can do that. With our informed consent process, students give us permission to communicate with each other because we’re all one entity.”

The access to records and services also helps health services better gauge and navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SJU Senate plans on hosting an opening ceremony for the new location with Health Services on Sept. 21. Fr. Nick Kleespie will give a blessing, and students will be able to tour the new facilities.

SJU Senate Trustee Representative Ashton Cleare worked with Health Services to organize the ceremony. Cleare, was one of the first Senators to work with Scheck last spring. He echoed others’ emphasis on the importance of the new model.

“I am an international, out of state student, so the barrier to health care is extremely high for myself and many other Johnnies,” Cleare, who is from the Bahamas, said. “Knowing that there was a cheaper option and knowing that it was possible because we saw it at St. Ben’s, I felt like it was something we desperately needed at SJU.”