"If the walk-in clinic is our worst foot, then Stillman is our best," says Wacker.
Wacker also says that some people get disappointed with UHS because they expect a doctor to tell them exactly what their illness is, when a doctor often cannot be sure what disease a person has.
Catching Mono
He refers specifically to mononucleosis as a disease which takes a long time to positively identify, even though it may make a student feel a little sick at the outset.
"A million times I've heard the story about kids who visit UHS before Christmas and complain they have mono. The doctor at UHS does not find it. They go home for Christmas break; the disease has had time to develop, and their doctor at home finds it. Then they come back here and say 'UHS missed my mono,' when that just isn't the case."
Wacker also says that doctors occasionally do not see fractures on X-rays if the fractures are very slight, but that as the break heals, calcium forms over the break and reveals the fracture more plainly. This explains why one doctor might miss a fracture, whereas another doctor, who sees a patient a while later, may tell the patient that he has been walking around with a broken limb for a while.
In addition, Wacker says that thought many students say they won't go to UHS if they have a serious illness, they wind up going there anyway and are often pleased with the service they receive.
Wacker also notes that UHS was one of the first health services to offer a patient advocate--an administrator whose duty is to receive, investigate and report on patient complaints.
Postel says that he and Lisa Chertkov '85, the patient advocate, review all the complaints that UHS has received every week. Postel says that in the last six months, the worst complaint UHS has received has concerned two prescription errors which were corrected and in which the patients involved were not injured.
Finally, Wacker notes that UHS has invested a lot of money to make UHS a good health service. "I think we have one of the best health services in the country. You know, after all, it is Harvard," says Wacker.