March, 2009
Dear Student:
On behalf of the staff of the Student Health and Wellness Center, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your acceptance to Johns Hopkins. Undoubtedly, you will have many things to attend to as you prepare for school this fall. Nonetheless, please spend a few minutes reviewing the information in this letter. We have prepared this material in response to the many questions students and parents have asked about health care at school. For more detailed information, please visit our website (ww2.jhu.edu/~shcenter). We are also enclosing a list of self-care items you may wish to bring to school. Feel free to share this letter with your parents if you wish.
The Student Health and Wellness Center will be your primary source of health care at Hopkins. Our staff includes board certified physicians, nationally certified nurse practitioners and a nurse midwife, as well as nurses and office staff. All our physicians and nurse practioners/midwife are credentialed through the Johns Hopkins Hospital. We offer a broad range of primary care services, including routine gynecologic care.
During the academic year (September to May excluding intersession and Spring Break), our center is open Monday and Thursday 8:30-6; Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 8:30 AM to 5 PM; and Saturday from 9:00 AM to noon. On Mondays and Thursdays, the hours from 4-6 PM are reserved for sick or injured students. Ill students can almost always be seen the same day during our walk-in hours. There is an after-hours nurse triage system in place whenever the Health Center is closed. We do not charge for any service provided within the Health Center itself. Simple laboratory tests (rapid strep test, hemoglobin blood count, urinalysis, pregnancy and mono spot) are performed in the Health Center at no charge. Other lab tests are sent to one of several commercial laboratories; charges for these tests are generally billed directly to your insurance company.
Subspecialty care is provided through a network of physicians in the Baltimore area. Many subspecialists we use are on the faculty or staff of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. However, we have also carefully developed relationships with other physicians in the community. Many of them practice at Union Memorial Hospital, the closest hospital to the Homewood campus (about a 10 minute walk). These physicians have been added to and remain on our referral list because, through the years, students have told us they have liked the care they received from them. Most of them are very accommodating in scheduling appointments for students.
Because of its proximity to the Homewood campus, Union Memorial Hospital is generally the source of emergency care for students. By Maryland law, ambulances must transport to the nearest emergency department. Johns Hopkins Security will also transport less severely sick or injured students to Union Memorial Hospital and back to their dorms when they are discharged. We strongly encourage students to contact the nurse triage system when we are closed rather, than going directly to the Emergency Department. The number for the nurse triage system (toll-free) is 866-523-4725. The nurse triage system can also be accessed through security (410-516-7777). Your Resident Adviser (if you are living in the dorms) can also assist you in accessing the nurse triage system.
The Health Center operates a small pharmacy service but we are not a licensed pharmacy. This means that we can sell a limited number of common prescription medications, many of them generic, to students when our staff prescribes the medications. We do this to save students the time and effort needed to go to a nearby pharmacy. Under Maryland law, we cannot fill prescriptions written by physicians who are not part of our staff. Also, since we can only accept prescription co-pays from the University’s designated insurance plan (Aetna Student Health), it may be less expensive for you to go to a local pharmacy, especially for expensive brand name medications. You should check what kind of prescription drug coverage you have under your insurance plan.
The Health Center does administer allergy injections; students are responsible for scheduling their own appointments. We will store your allergy serum: it must be clearly labeled with an expiration date and your name and date of birth. We require that a student starting on therapy receive the first dose at the allergist’s office and that the allergist provide us with the date and dose of your last injection and written orders for future injections. Under no circumstances will we administer serum that is expired.
Hopefully, you will enjoy good health while studying at Hopkins. Nonetheless, we believe it is very important that you have some basic familiarity with your health insurance when you come to school. If you are not purchasing the insurance plan offered by the University, we strongly encourage you to bring your insurance card (or a copy of your parents’ card) and that you also send us a copy of the front and back of the card (as requested in our health form mailing) to be placed in your medical record.
In addition, you should know the following about your insurance plan:
• Does it have a prescription plan? If so, what is the co-pay for generic and brand name
medications?
• Does the plan require pre-authorization from your primary care physician at home for
subspecialty referrals or does it require that you have a participating primary care physician in the
Baltimore area?
• Does your plan require co-pay at the time of a subspecialty visit? How much is it?
• Does the plan restrict referrals to a network of physicians? If so, are there network physicians in
the Baltimore area? (Physicians in the Washington, DC area, even though considered local by an
insurance company, are generally more than an hour away and very difficult for students to
access by public transportation)
• Does the plan require use of particular laboratories in the Baltimore area for blood tests? Does it
limit radiology services to any particular radiology group? Do lab tests and radiological services
need prior approval? Insurance companies will usually deny payment for services if designated
laboratories or X-ray facilities are not used.
• If you belong to an HMO, you should find out how your coverage works when you are at school.
Some HMOs allow you to enroll as a “guest” in another HMO when you are out of state.
Three new vaccines have been licensed by the FDA that are of particular importance to college students. One is Menactra®, the new meningococcal meningitis vaccine. The other is a tetanus vaccine (Adacel® or Boostrix®) that will also boost your immunity to pertussis (whooping cough). Pertussis is a growing problem on college campuses. You can read more about these 2 vaccines in the instructions accompanying the pre-entrance health form or click on this link to the Centers for Disase Control Recommended Immunization Schedules for Persons Aged 0--18 Years.
Under Maryland law, students who live in University housing must be vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis or sign a waiver; you should ask your physician whether you should also receive one dose of Adacel® or Boostrix®. We strongly recommend that women receive the 3 dose human papillomavirus vaccine (Gardasil®). Finally, the CDC now recommends two doses of varicella vaccine for those who have not had the disease. We stock all these vaccines except varicella.
Finally, I want to share with you our policy about confidentiality. All your health information is kept strictly confidential unless we are required by law to report it or unless you present a clear threat to your health or someone else’s. Our ability to meet your health care needs would be severely compromised if you had any reason to believe that information you disclose to us would be shared with your parents without your advance permission. Therefore, if your parents call about a visit you have made to the health center, we will be happy to listen to their concerns but we will not share any information about the visit without first getting your permission. Please share this information with your parents so they know what to expect.
Should you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to call me at 410-516-8270 or email me (ajoffe@jhu.edu). We will also have an information table during move-in weekend and the Center itself will be open to assist students in completing our pre-entrance health requirements.
Sincerely yours,
Alain Joffe, MD, MPH
Director