Zuromskis says the system of group care at UHS, which may create problems of access and attitude, does ensure higher standards of care.

"Our quality control here is better because of group practice, where lots of people are in the care system and can pick up a chart to see if a mistake was made," Zuromskis says. "It may not be as intimate as a single practice, but there are more people participating which improves quality."

An extensive search of the records of the State Board of Registration in Medicine and the Division of Health Care Quality of the State Public Health Department yielded only a handful of complaints, none since 1989. State court records showed fewer than five malpractice suits since 1989.

Kathleen Diaz, the patient advocate at UHS, says students filed less than 10 complaints with her department last year.

In fact, UHS administrators at times seem complacent about the quality of care they feel they provide to the Harvard community. In his opening statement to the 1988-1989 annual report, former UHS Director Dr. Warren E.C. Wacker wrote that the health service was "not qualitatively better than it was in 1971, but more comprehensive in what we have to offer the community."

Objective evaluators also find little wrong with the care at UHS. Every two years, UHS is evaluated by a visiting committee of doctors and health care administrators from outside organizations. Peggy Stevens, associate executive director of Humana-Michael Reese, a health maintenance organization (HMO) in Chicago, and a member of the committee, says Harvard students should have little to complain about.

"The quality of care indicators are excellent," Stevens says. "They have a very select group of physicians at UHS and very good quality control."

The Chicago-based Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a private, not-for-profit organization, accredited UHS in 1992. The health service received generally high ratings in the accreditation report, although commission spokesperson Stephen L. Davidow says the report also identified "one or more areas" in which UHS care was sub-standard.

And officials at area hospitals, who often see patients UHS is not equipped to handle, agree with objective evaluators.

"UHS is providing good care," says Christine Simonian, emergency room practice manager at Brigham and Womens' Hospital. "Whenever students are sent here for care, we never see any problems with the way they have been treated. Their care is good."

A significant minority of the 80 undergraduates interviewed praise the quality of care at UHS, citing access and friendliness as their main gripes.

"I went in there for a pinched nerve once, and they found that I had lyme disease," says Fred J. Leidner '95. "They caught the disease in time."

Katherine A. DeLellis '96 says the nurses treated her with extra special care when she checked in with a fever.

"There was a long line upstairs, but the nurse took one look at me and said, 'You look like you need help,'" DeLellis says. "I saw a doctor within five minutes."

Particularly strong, according to almost all doctors interviewed, is the mental health service. Students almost unanimously say they especially appreciate the treatment they receive there.