Newspaper Page Text
TMf WIIT OIOffOIAN rtIDAV IfPTIMU* 14 if 74
10
Student Paid Fees Operate Infirmary 24 Hours
BY MICHAEL BYRD
It’s one of the “moat modern
facilities of a campus in the
state/' according to Dean of
Student Services Bruce Lyon.
It’s open M-hours-a-day, seven
days a week and it operates
entirely on fees paid by
JO9 I 1 if
■I „ i
The Infirmary treats student ills.
SING FOOD STORE AND
CHEVRON STATION
Open 7 a.m. -12 p.m.
Cold beer, wine, drinks, snacks, groceries
Compare Our Prices
Dry Cleaning Service Featuring 48 Hour
Del i very Self Service Laundry
Open 7 a.m. - 10 p.m.
1213 Maple St. Wash your own using our
wash, dry, fold service
students.
It is the West Georgia College
Infirmary headed by Dr. Roy
Denney, full-time physician.
Denney, a Carrollton eyenear
noae-aod-throat specialist who
has retired from private
practice, is at the center from 8
a.m. until 1 p.m. He has been on
the West Georgia staff since fall
quarter.
When the doctor is not there,
the nurses run the center in
three 8-hour shifts. Fifteen
beds are available for overnight
patients. The center is run on
the $lB fee paid by all students
taking more than six quarter
hours. The fee is optional for
students taking fewer hours.
The clinic also has a full-time
registered pharmacist in Doug
Almon, who works from 8 a.m.
until 4 p.m. Almon, who worked
for 10 years with Robinson Drug
Cos. before coming to West
Georgia February, says that
the campus pharmacy is
well stocked with 125
prescription drugs and some
over-the-counter mediations
and is adding to the count all the
time. “We’re filling nearly as
many prescriptions as a retail
pharmacy,” he says.
Almon fills between 80 and 100
prescriptions in an average
day, predominantly
tetracycline, he says, and with
the hay-fever season ap
proaching, Antihistamines.
During the winter months,
however, the average was
much higher. One day in
January, Almon filled a record
212 prescriptions, and the
month saw over 2,000 filled.
The pharmacy has expanded
quite a bit since the state made
the requirement that a
registered pharmacist must be
at the center if prescription
drugs are to be dispensed.
Generic drugs are lied to
reduce the coat and 96 percent
of the medications are bought
through a state-bid contract at
about half price.
It is not the practice of the
center to prescribe placebos
(inert medications having only
a psychological effect), ac
cording to a nurse, who
preferred not to be named. “I
don’t believe in that. Who’s to
say who’s really sick?” she
said. Almon agrees, and says
he has not filled a prescription
with placebos since he has been
here.
Some medications, such as
insulin for diabetica, anti
convulsants, and other
‘‘maintenance ,, medicationa,
aren’t stocked at the center.
Other services, such as X-rays,
have to be handled by other
facilities, usually Tanner
Memorial Hospital. There is a
charge for these services. The
clinic is without its own am
bulance, and must rely on
Public Safety in some cases, but
is usually served by Metro of
Carrollton.
Several health programs
other than standard services
are offered by the infirmary,
including a gynecological
(GYN) clinic, formerly the
Family Planning Clinic. It is
held twice a month and is
usually full. Anyone interested
must sign up ahead of time
because the clinic can only
serve 20 people a session. Pap
smears are ottered to test for
cancer with a charge of $3.50.
This is a good deal, according to
one nurse, because the fee for a
comparable service in a non
campus facility would be
around $35 Blood analysis is
done at Tanner.
A small lab at the campus
facility handles other types of
blood work, along with
urinalyses, pregnancy tests,
throat cultures, and tests for
mononucleosis. Veneral
disease testing is done here.
There is no charge for V.D.
screening. If diagnosed,
Veneral disease is usually
treated with a shot of penicillin
followed by a prescription of
tetracycline
Despite what rumors may be
circulating about the infirmary,
moat treatments are not for
V.D., Almon said. Moat of the
complaints are concerning
virus, strep, and “flu-like”
symptoms.
Mo6t students will never need
the full treatment a hospital
could provide, however. For
them, the infirmary provides
the care they’d otherwise have
to travel miles to home for.