In recent weeks, The Daily Pennsylvanian has published articles, editorials and letters to the editor about health care and services at Penn. It is clear these issues matter to members of the Penn community, from undergraduates to graduate students to administrators. Yet, I am puzzled at the focus on the elimination of walk-ins at the Student Health Service, and I urge the Penn community to shift its attention to the real problem.
As a member of Graduate Employees Today-University of Pennsylvania, the group advocating for better health care coverage for graduate student employees through unionization, and as a Graduate and Professional Student Assembly appointee to the Student Wellness Advisory Board, an advisory group of graduate students, undergraduates and directors of various health services at Penn, I have a unique perspective. I have learned from my involvement in GET-UP and in SWAB exactly where the real problems lie: a shortage of resources devoted to health care at Penn.
I have confidence in Evelyn Wiener's efforts and commitment to improve Student Health Services. I have witnessed it first-hand. In SWAB meetings, we openly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of many services provided at Penn, such as Counseling and Psychological Services, Alcohol Policy Initiatives, the Student Health Service and Health Education. The directors of these programs are members of SWAB, and they solicit our input and consider it in making decisions and implementing initiatives.
Contrary to recent news and opinion pieces in the pages of this paper, SHS provides excellent service, especially in a context of scarcity. SHS needs more space and more money to offer the best services possible. The new policy of same-day appointments in lieu of walk-ins is a positive and significant improvement. People wait for shorter periods of time now and prefer the new system.
Contrary to the suggestion made in the Feb. 18 editorial, SHS takes without appointment those walk-in patients who need urgent care. In addition, same-day appointments and waits of only 20 minutes are admirable. Before graduate school, I had to make appointments months in advance and still found myself spending hours in a waiting room. People have, of course, had negative experiences at the Student Health Service, as evidenced by the anecdotes presented in the DP.
No provider is perfect. Yet, such experiences are the exception rather than the norm. The overwhelming majority of those who have used SHS have been happy with their care. Those who have not been satisfied should register their complaints. If there is a systematic problem (for example, with a certain physician), it can and will be addressed.
However, we should not be complacent about the health care system at Penn. The administration should devote more resources to SHS and also to health care and insurance in order to ensure an environment of health promotion and disease prevention; to guarantee that those with chronic conditions can safely, efficiently and affordably manage their illnesses; to make certain that students and employees with dependents can obtain affordable health insurance and medical care. I am concerned about the status of our health care at Penn, and I look forward to a legally recognized union making things better.
Health care costs are rising in Pennsylvania and all across the country. But that does not mean that services must remain lacking, or that the increasing costs of health care should be passed on to students and employees, those who can least afford it. Rather, the administration should step up and demonstrate its commitment to our health and well-being, its recognition that we cannot afford health care as it is presently provided and its acknowledgement of the value and importance of good health for students and employees to perform successfully.
We are lucky. Penn is a wealthy institution and can afford to provide for our health. But until the administration agrees to spend the money necessary to provide for the health of all its students and employees, SHS and advisory groups like SWAB and SHIAC will continue to operate within a set of constraints that will not allow for major improvement of health care on this campus.
I look forward to continue working with Dr. Wiener and the other members of SWAB to improve Penn services and identify problems. I also look forward expectantly to the day when the Penn administration will devote adequate resources to provide for the health and well-being of its students and employees, and their families.
I am confident that SWAB and SHIAC will continue to do their utmost to improve things in their advisory capacities. I am also confident that GET-UP will succeed in obtaining comprehensive health benefits for its members once it wins a union election and secures a contract.
Joanie Mazelis is a fourth-year Sociology graduate student from New York, N.Y., and a interim co-spokesperson for Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Student Wellness Advisory Board.
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