There’s a little red building across Easterday Avenue from Brady Hall.  By this time in the school year, most everyone knows that building as the Health Care Center.  Some have even already visited there.  Others, by the grace of good immune systems and careful handwashing, have been able to avoid it so far.

The Lake Superior State University Health Care Center is a full-service medical clinic open to the general public.  Their youngest client is just under a year old, and their oldest, early nineties.  Staff and faculty are also seen at the Health Care Center, but for the students, there’s a little something extra.

“We joke that we’re mom to about 3000 students,” says Center Director Karen Storey.  “They (the students) think they left their mom at home, but they didn’t.”  In addition to all the things one would expect from a well-appointed clinic with a caring, talented staff, the university Health Care Center offers special little touches just for the students.

One of these things is “Mom in a Bag.”  Sniffles?  Throat hurt?  Homesick?  “Mom in a Bag” has you covered.  Chicken soup and cough drops, Tylenol and Kleenex, hand sanitizer, even Pepto Bismol, along with handy self-care instructions make the winter-school blahs (and sneezes, and coughs, and headaches) just a little easier to handle.  Students’ reaction to “Mom in a Bag”?  “They love it,” Ms. Storey says.

There are times, however, when students need more than a bowl of chicken soup and a cough drop.  The Health Care center is equipped to deal with all manner of mild emergencies.  From strep throat and mononucleosis testing and treatment, to putting in and taking out stitches.  Students still covered by a parent or guardian’s insurance can bring a current insurance card and the insured’s (mom or dad’s) birthdate.  Students needing to sign up for insurance can find help and advice on how to go about it.  Students who show up and are sick don’t need either.  And they don’t need to bring money either.

Yes.  Sick students are seen at no cost to them.  Free.  Gratis.  It’s already taken care of.  Seriously.  All the Health Care Center asks is that you make an appointment.  Walk-ins are welcome, and walk-in students are seen as time permits, but appointments are strongly encouraged.  The earlier in the day the student calls to make the appointment, the more likely that student is to be seen that day.

The Health Care Center also does maintenance and preventative medical procedures such as routine male and female physicals, athletic physicals, allergy shots, contraceptives, and immunizations for a reasonable fee.  Dr. Timothy Tetzlaff, Medical Director, and Ms. Mary McLeod, Nurse Practitioner both have the ability to write prescriptions.  The rest of the staff, Physician Assistant Scott Bartz, Medical Assistant Renee Formolo, Medical Assistant Michelle Butler, and Receptionist Connie Keiper, are also ready, willing, and able to assist students in any way they can.

Everything from ear wax cleaning to HIV testing to psychological counseling is available to the students of LSSU at or through the university Health Care Center, and every last word of it is utterly confidential.  Without an explicit, signed consent form from the student being treated, nobody, not parents, not professors, not anybody, can be told anything about a student’s illness or treatment.

Alongside the business aspect of the clinic is the university aspect of the clinic.  The Health Care Center employs a rotation of both athletic training students and nursing students.  “We really do enjoy it, “ Ms. Storey says of the student workers.  “We learn from each other.  It’s an educational environment.”  As with so many departments, and with the university as a whole, what makes the whole thing work is the team.  The Health Care Center employees are a family, working together to meet both the goals of an educational institution and the goals of a public health care provider.  As Ms. Storey says, “All the staff goes above and beyond to help the student... to help the patient.”

The Lake Superior State University Health Care Center is located at 650 W. Easterday Avenue, across Easterday from Brady Hall.  The center is open from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday.  They are closed between noon and 12:30 for lunch.  Appointments are strongly encouraged.  Call early in the day for the best chance of being seen that day.  The Health Care Center can be reached at  635-2110.  For more information about the Health Care Center, its staff, services, and insurance options, please visit www.lssu.edu/health.  Whether you need stitches, some Tylenol, or just a hug, it’s there for you at the Health Care Center.

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