WSSU is only HBCU in state with nationally accredited student health center

Feeling sick?  Need a physical or want to get tested?

 The Winston-Salem State's student health center offers a variety of options for students.

A.H. Ray Student Health Center is the only center at an HBCU in North Carolina that is nationally accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. 

    The health center operates Mondays through Fridays, offers  a walk-in clinic every day, and is open during the summer sessions.

Students are required to bring their RAM card and an insurance card with them for every visit. 

There is no co-pay for students.

The health center offers a variety of general medical care services, which includes contraception and counseling, HIV/STD testing, physicals, immunizations and allergy injections. 

"We offer general health care that you get at your primary care physician's office," said Michael D. Isler, the clinical services and informatics coordinator. 

The health center sees about 3,000 students a year. 

Depending on the season, students come to the health center for different reasons.

"Typically in the winter, students come over for cold and flu symptoms, and in the summer a lot times students come for allergy symptoms and rashes," Isler said.

Although the center does not treat faculty and staff, it does offer TB skin tests for the  entire WSSU community -- students, faculty and staff.

There are three nurse practitioners available who can diagnose, treat students, and write prescriptions. 

The health center always has a medical doctor on call. Nurses are able to give students over-the-counter medicine at no cost.

"What we try to do at the student health center is to keep cost as low as possible for the students," Isler said.

The center also provides pap smears and birth control.

"Our students make use of being able to get their pap smear done, when they are away from home," Isler said.

There are some students who prefer not to use the health center at all.

"I don't use the student health center anymore," said Leonza Sanders a marketing major from Wilson, N.C.

"I used it my freshmen year and that's it," Sanders said.

 "I have my own insurance now."

Isler said that typically students don't like to see a doctor when they're afraid something is wrong.

"We encourage students to utilize the health center," Isler said.

Within the next year, the health center may open a pharmacy.  

"The [pharmacist] position is open for a pharmacist and we are hoping to get one," Isler said.