Boyana Peeva
Staff Writer
bppeeva@valdosta.edu

The new Student Health Center of VSU located on Georgia Ave. opened for patients on Jan. 7.

Farber Health Center needed improvements since the old building was morethan 45 years old and was constructed when the number of students was around 1,000 said Lynette Lewis, assistant director for administration.

“With the growing student population, the demand for the Health Center grew too,” Lewis said.

The Health Center needed more space, services and providers and that is why its administration began meeting with University officials and student groups that also agreed on the necessity for a change.

The Student Fee Committee accepted the proposal for a new building and implemented the building fee. After one year of planning, the construction began in Dec 2007 and finished in a year.

Radiology and laboratory services as well as more providers and a larger nursing staff were added to the new Health Center.

“In the past we would have to refer students to an outside source for an x-ray if they needed one. Now we can do those in house,” Lewis said. “We also have been able to increase our laboratory services and do not have to send out as many tests as we did in the past.”

In addition, an educational room was built in order to provide a place for health education seminars and classes.

Lewis said that the Health Center staff aims at educating the students on new and existing health risks.

“We also plan to educate the students on our motto and what it means, ‘Healing the present, teaching the future’,” she said.

The students can now fill out a patient satisfaction survey and leave feedback. This way the Health Center can work on further improvements of the service if needed.

“If they charge us better it should be better: more appointment times, better doctors, and more equipped nurses,” Miranda Hines, a psychology senior, said.

Lewis said that the students who have visited the new Health Center so far are satisfied with the way they were treated there.

“Students have stated that their increased student health fee is being well served,” she said.
To meet the student demand for health services, the Health Center now has a new provider who is responsible for the walk-ins.

However, students should always try to schedule time for a visit up front either by going there or by calling the new appointment phone line 229-219-3200 where they can make or cancel an appointment.

The working hours have not been changed: Monday-Thursday 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m., and Friday 7:30-2:30 p.m.