I had a severe chest infection this quarter which led to complications because I am asthmatic. I called the SCC and was told that the earliest appointment I could get was more than a week later.

After arguing over my breathing difficulties (and a few phone calls later) I did manage to get an emergency appointment the next day. Only to find when I got there that there were no other patients. Plenty of medical staff -- but they were not meeting with students. I have no idea what they were doing...

I had to go to the hospital 3 times over the following week and didn't ever see more than two other students in the waiting room!

This is not acceptable.

My five year long experience is that the doctors have been excellent (and their bedside manner top notch, especially when compared to that of the rest of the hospital), but actually getting to see a doctor (instead of an RN) very difficult.

The sort of thing about which I thought I'd never complain:

Last year, I came down with a moderate fever and some neck/back pain. I called SCC to schedule an appointment... but I couldn't. The person to whom I spoke told me that I would have to go to the hospital emergency room. Knowing I didn't have the money to afford an ER bill -- which, even after Chickering, amounted to quite a lot -- I begged her for an appointment AT ANY TIME. No dice.

I figured that this situation might change later in the day, so I called again. I got the same result: the person on the other end of the line explained that I might have meningitis, and that the SCC didn't have access to the sophisticated equipment needed to test me.

Suitably scared, I headed to the University of Chicago Medical Center ER. I spent eight hours camped on a chair, wending my way through an incomprehensible philosophy paper, and was finally seen by a doctor. He spent less than three minutes with me. After I described my symptoms, he ran his hands down my back, realized that the pain was focused in my muscles rather than my spine, and pronounced, "It's not meningitis." He suggested that I drink fluids and sent me home, at 4 am.

Two months later, I got a bill for over $400, which, after failed haggling on my part, I paid. Now I'm not a doctor, and perhaps there WAS some important reason why I needed to go to the emergency room. But I sure don't see it. Nobody at the ER seemed interested in using any of the "sophisticated equipment" that was supposed to be necessary in order to diagnose me. In under five minutes, a doctor figured out that I didn't have meningitis by using only his bare hands. Why couldn't the doctors at the SCC have done that? Did they lack the "specialized knowledge?"

The $400 was difficult for me to come up with. And -- just for fun, perhaps -- it included a $25 charge for Tylenol dispensed in the emergency room. I didn't take any Tylenol at all while I was there. When I mentioned this to the billing rep, she assured me that the hospital would "review the file." I never heard back. Maybe the bill required examination with sophisticated equipment?

I got a message today that my women's care appointment for March (scheduled in early December) was cancelled. I returned the call to find out why this happened and the answer was that a physician was 'reorganizing her schedule.' The next appointment I could be offered was in June. This has effectively shut me out of women's health care for a full academic year. What have my health care fees gone to?!

Hello,

I am an international student, and I am in the first year of a PhD program. I do not have the means to purchase health care for my husband, so for the time being we are living in the precarious situation of no coverage for him. I think that gaining coverage, or at least partial coverage, for student spouses, should be a priority of the university.

Thank you.

We've seen a lot of critical comments about the Student Care Center lately. Post your stories here if you'd like to share them. Anonymous posting is fine...