| The staff of MTSU’s Health Services welcomed the community to its sparkling new facilities in the Campus Recreation Center at a 4 p.m. ribbon-cutting and grand opening Wednesday, which was designed to put the “fun” back into the fundamentals of wellness.
The ribbon cutting was followed by live music, demonstrations, inflatables, tours and refreshments – “a real carnival/festival-type activity,” said Richard Chapman, Health Services Director.
The new clinic is an attraction all its own. With 18,000 square feet and 22 examination rooms, it is an improvement over the McFarland building, which provided only 10 functioning exam rooms. For the first time ever on campus, X-ray services will be available as well as travel medicine to support study abroad students.
Another first and perhaps the main attraction will be the drive-thru pharmacy, which could be up and running as early as Oct. 1. Until then, the dispensary will remain in operation.
MTSU’s new Director of Pharmacy, Tabby Ragland, already is on board and working to fulfill all the necessary requirements, including licenses and arrangements with insurance companies. Ragland, an MTSU alumna and 1994 graduate of the pharmacy school at the University of Tennessee at Memphis, said she welcomes the chance to be a part of the expansion.
“What attracted me the most was the opportunity to do something brand new, to develop something from the ground up, from the very beginning and make it my own and grow it to fit this environment, this college campus,” Ragland said.
For now, plans call for the pharmacy to have the same hours as the clinic, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Chapman said customers will drive in the recreation center’s main entrance, turn to the right and curve around the building, where they will encounter an ATM-type kiosk with a pneumatic tube system.
“With parking on any college campus, it’s a little bit of a challenge at times,” Ragland said. “So with the drive-thru feature, that makes it very nice for people to get their prescription on their way in to class or on their way home if they want to. If they want to call in or e-mail or fax in their request, then they can just pull in the drive-thru and just pick it up that way.”
As with all medical services, Chapman and his staff will strive to keep costs low by charging minor fees for lab work, blood tests, medications and specialized exams such as the Federal Aviation Administration exam for aerospace majors. However, as usual, there will be no charge for routine office visits for students.
Meanwhile, Chapman is looking forward to expanding Health Services’ outreach programs, highlighting such areas as alcohol and drugs, nutrition, healthy lifestyles, sexual health, smoking, sexually transmitted illness awareness, and suicide and depression.
Eventually, the McFarland building will house the Academic Support Center, Transfer Student Services and a satellite office of the Department of Public Safety.
|
Email
Print
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo!