Since its construction in 1965, the University’s Health Center building decayed quickly, and by the early 2000s, it was gangrenous.
But as fall term begins, and the center’s $10 million renovation draws toward completion, Health Center Director Dr. Tom Ryan said the building’s old wounds have healed.
The complete remodel has brought the observation, treatment, dental, and pharmacy departments – all of the center’s clinical services – onto the same floor, and added 10,000 sq. ft. of new space. Also gone is what Ryan called the “dark, institutional” feel of the building, cleared away by the two new courtyards pouring in natural light.
The building features new offices, entirely new areas for counseling, dentistry and nursing, and has brought all treatment up from the basement.
But despite the expanded space and the streamlined operations, Ryan was most excited about the new elevator whose doors open a few feet from the main entrance.
In the old days, students who needed a ramp to enter the building and an elevator to move between floors had to come in at the service entrance and use a dingy freight elevator.
“It was just dreadful,” Ryan said. “The Americans with Disabilities Act was not even thought of when this building was built.”
But now, a student in a wheelchair can enter from a ramp at the front entrance and change floors at their leisure.
“The space is just gonna be incredible once it’s done,” Ryan said, which is a process that will come piecemeal until the end of October.
The massive renovation was originally slated to be completed at the end of November, but Ryan said hard-working and efficient builders have shaved a month off the schedule. It would have been done even sooner had workers not discovered asbestos behind some of the walls, causing the center to spend three weeks hiring specialists to don space suits and cordon off large areas for three weeks to get rid of the disease-causing insulation.
But as the sections gradually edge toward fully-operational, staff will focus on treating only the most urgent cases, Ryan said. Fall terms always begins with a rush on the center, Ryan said, because people put off treatment for nagging problems that they figure can be solved at school. These people will have to wait for a while, probably about two or three weeks into the term, he said, to receive check-ups and other non-essential services. He did say, however, that students who need pap smears to refill their birth control medication will get them promptly.
As part of the project, the center has switched from the traditional paper charts, the kind that hung off nails on the ends of beds, to electronic records, accessible by computers in each office that rest on moveable stands attached to the walls. The screens can swivel and raise up and down, allowing doctors and nurses to show patients their test results, but also to swivel back to provide confidentiality when accessing files containing other patients’ information.
All of these installations combined with all the construction have taken place while the center has remained in operation.
“It’s sort of like walking along juggling,” Ryan said.
The construction has caused departments to transplant their operations from one section of the building to another several times over, most strangely sending physical therapy across campus to the Student Recreation Center.
Tim McDonald, manager of sports medicine and physical therapy, said the two moves his staff has undertaken have made things hectic, but have helped him learn to adapt to new situations.
I’m getting better at moving,” McDonald said. “I feel like a gypsy.”
Even with all the challenges, he said the renovation has brought much-needed change. He said since his department moved from the basement the work environment has improved tremendously.
Before, “you felt like you were descending into another world,” McDonald said.” It was just dismal.”
But now, “It’s gonna be much more enjoyable,” McDonald said. “It was well worth it.”
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