Going to Cancun or some other exotic foreign destination for Spring Break?

A stop at the doctor’s office might be necessary before embarking.

UT Student Health Services is stepping up its programs in patient

education, and one of the ways it is doing that is to offer a computer

program that lists certain vaccinations and immunizations students will

need if traveling to another country.

Joanne Alexander, special projects nurse, said the information comes from

the national Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and

her own research.

“I’ll tell (students traveling abroad) about the political climate or

certain customs of a country if it’s important,” Alexander said.

In addition to education, the clinic’s first priority is to be a primary

care medical facility open to all eligible students.

Fred Young, administrator of Student Health Services, said the most

important service the clinic provides is primary medical care. The clinic

has eight broadly trained, full-time physicians in areas ranging from

family practice to internal medicine.

Student Health Services also provides mental health care for those dealing

with stress.

“We are the only contact necessary for students, usually,” Young said.

There is a lot of misunderstanding on the part of students about how the

clinic system works, Young said.

“We do have an appointment system, but we always have an on-call doctor,”

he said. “The only criteria is if the student feels like he needs to see a

doctor.”

Students are always given the opportunity to compliment, complain to, and

make suggestions to the clinic, Young said.

Using this input, the clinic has comes up with an approximate “GPA” for its

services. Young said the clinic’s current GPA is in the range of

3.3-3.6.