Quality care around the corner
Health Services provides numerous resources to help students combat illness
With winter comes the all-too-common, but never welcome, cold and flu season.
Treatment— Students can go to Liberty Health Services to get physicals, bloodwork, X-rays, medicine refills and immunization shots. Photo credit: Leah Seavers
While Liberty’s Health Services provides healthcare service to students with the cold, flu and strep throat, they also offer a variety of additional treatments.
“We’re like a regular doctor’s office, so we can do physicals, we can do blood work, X-rays if necessary, medication refills or follow-ups, and of course we see acute symptoms (such as) strep throat, the flu and injuries,” Medical Office Associate Kristie Newcomb said.
Liberty’s Health Services provides healthcare to current students, faculty members and their immediate family members, in addition to members of Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty Christian Academy, according to the Health Services Web page.
“Typically, a lot of those that come through (with injuries) are staff members that work here that have been injured on the job, and of course, students that participate in sports activities,” Newcomb said.
According to Newcomb, Health Services can still see patients that have been seen previously but have not been employed within the last three years.
Health Services provides exercise and obesity counseling, sports physicals, Electrocardiogram, an annual well-woman exam, minor surgeries, such as laceration repair, and removal of minor lesions, skin tags, moles and warts. A variety of immunization shots are also administered at Health Services.
“We do tetanus or Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis), measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), polio, chickenpox, hepatitis and flu,” Newcomb said.
Health Services also treats patients with broken bones and fractures by doing castings. However, if patients require surgery, then Health Services will refer them to a hospital.
“We can see emergency type things, but if it’s something serious, then we’d end up sending them there (to the hospital) anyway,” Newcomb said.
The cost of a visit to Health Services, depending on the severity, is $100 to $150, according to Newcomb.
“That doesn’t include any lab testing, X-rays or procedures that may be done,” Newcomb said. “So that’s just for the actual visit with the doctor.”
How a student pays for a visit depends on what type of insurance they have, Newcomb said.
“If (students) have a co-pay with their insurances that’s required upfront, then we would bill their insurances for the remaining (amount),” Newcomb said. “Then, of course, some insurances require authorization, so we try to encourage the patients to familiarize themselves with their insurance policy or ask their parents to make sure that they’d be covered here beforehand.”
Students who are not insured can still see a doctor, but they will be required to pay a minimum of $80 on the day of their visit, Newcomb said.
According to Newcomb, on average, Health Services sees approximately 80 to 90 students a day during the school year. During the summer, they receive approximately half as many patients.
Students suffering from acute symptoms can walk into Health Services without an appointment. However, students suffering from chronic illnesses must schedule an appointment.
Health Services is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. but is closed daily from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.For more information about Health Services, visit liberty.edu/studentaffairs/healthservices or call 434-200-6370 to make an appointment.
BUNNER is a feature reporter.