By Evan Filandrianos, Currier Times Staff///

As the Purple Press has been promoting for at least the last couple of weeks, The Health Center now has the availability for students to book online appointments! 

As the flyer promotes, if you need to see a practicing nurse, you can book an appointment online. The  appointment would first require the student to log onto the PyraMED portal on the MyCurry website. From there, students can book an appointment. When signing up for an appointment, you are asked the date of it, the reason for it, and the time of it.

Beyond booking for appointments, students can view their blood work results, view immunization history, view the summaries of visits, and one can upload their medical documentation or if they have health insurance information students can upload that.

Kathleen Joyce, The Director of the Health Services Health Center at Curry College, gave more insight into this change.

“With the online scheduling piece, we have nine common symptoms or reasons for booking an appointment,” said Joyce. “Those being cold symptoms, contraceptives consults, a cough, emergency contraception, fever, sickness, STI testing, urinary symptoms, or vaginal health concerns.”

Joyce said beyond those nine areas she requests that students call the Health Center.

“And the reason we ask when your calling is so that we can ask additional information,” said Joyce. “If you have a significant stomach ache, a headache, those type of symptoms we would  just want a little bit more information to be able to know if it’s OK for you to wait to book your appointment to maybe get you in sooner and/or refer you off campus based on symptoms.”

The staff at the Health Center were first to initiate the online scheduling change, as they wanted to ensure ways of having the student’s best interest in mind. The online scheduling gives students greater options and greater access to receiving care that they may need.

The Health Center has a nurse practitioner, a medical assistant, and a registered nurse. The Counseling Center also has three licensed clinicians in mental health.

Why would students want to book an appointment online with the Health Center as opposed to just going in person?

Booking an online appointment may be easier and it serves as an additional resource that students will have to their advantage. Joyce also mentioned that booking an online appointment may be easier if the reason someone books the appointment is due to sensitive information.

There has been an uptick already in students filling out an online appointement.

“There are two ways to book an appointment,” said Joyce. “You can call the Health Center, and you can speak to our wonderful admin, Randa, and she can help you book an appointment. Or you can schedule your online appointment through your Student Health Portal. Your Student Health Portal is your Pyramed portal, or you can access it via the Health Center website.”

Students said the idea of online appointments is a positive development.

“I think it’s a good thing,” said Tajlewin-Pina, a first year student majoring in Marketing. “It makes it easier for people to book appointments around their schedule. You don’t have to wait on a call.”

John Garrison, a senior, majoring in Public Relations with a minor in Communication, said the change needs more marketing to get the word out.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Garrison. “I think the only thing that needs to be known is like more awareness that you can do that because this is my first time hearing about doing online appointments.”

Students studying in the health care fields were also supportive.

“The times I have used it (the health center), it has been a little inconvenient to just kind of walk in and hope they have availability,” said Max Victor, a senior Public Health major. “And who likes calling? No one likes doing that anymore. Being able to schedule appointments online is just going to be much more helpful, and make it easier for people to get in there when they need to get in there.”

Victor added, “Especially I work in the healthcare field, so I see people calling in vs. people scheduling online. I’ve notice people tend to gravitate towards booking online a lot more.”

Jahmieiah Sydney, a Sophomore majoring in nursing  said, “I think it might be a good thing for like the students cause it might be more convenient cause sometimes not everybody has like the time to like call, and like kind of wait around, so if they can like do it off their like phone, computer, iPad, it is just a little more convenient and like they won’t have to like really stress.”

 Marvin Ssebagala, a Junior majoring in Public Health, with minors in Psychology and Biology, also feels the addition has a positive influence.

“I feel like online scheduling, it just makes it easier for the students to get services,” said Ssebagala.