UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With the new semester underway, Penn State students are reminded of services offered by University Health Services, including appointment scheduling and the Nurse Advice Line.
University Health Services (UHS), a unit of Student Affairs, is an all-inclusive, on-campus health care service offering medical, pharmacy, physical therapy, lab, imaging, reproductive health, radiology, medical records, and emergency services. It also has an allergy injection clinic that will be reopening in the coming weeks.
“Don’t be afraid of UHS,” said UHS medical director Rebecca Simcik. “We’re here to help and we’ve been doing college health for a long time. We are happy to help and make sure you have a healthy and safe semester.”
Scheduling
University Health Services offers limited same-day appointments that open 16 hours prior to the appointment time. It is recommended that students schedule these in the morning since most slots are taken by noon. Appointments can be scheduled using the myUHS portal.
Before an appointment, students should consult the UHS billing for medical services page to determine if their visit will be covered by their health insurance plan.
Due to COVID-19 concerns, appointments must be scheduled. Walk-ins are only permitted for the Pharmacy, which provides prescription pick-up and over the counter medicine. Visitors to UHS are required to wear a mask. Disposable masks are available at the entrance for those who have forgotten one.
To cancel or reschedule a medical appointment, use the myUHS portal or call 814-865-4UHS (4847)— the general UHS phone number. Appointments must be canceled or rescheduled at least one hour before the scheduled time. Physical therapy appointments must be canceled or rescheduled 12 hours prior to the evaluation appointment and at least two hours before the treatment appointment. If the evaluation or treatment appointments are set for the morning, students must leave a voicemail.
There is a $20 no-show fee for medical and physical therapy appointments.
Nurse Advice Line
Students with questions or concerns regarding their health — including whether they need to be seen in-person — can also call the general UHS phone number and press 3 to access the Advice Nurse. The line is answered by UHS Registered Nurses Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. After these hours and on weekends or holidays, the calls are handled by an answering service, and all calls are reviewed by UHS staff on the next business day.
Those with questions about billing or appointment schedules should call the UHS phone number and press 2 for appointments, 4 for billing or 0 for general inquiries to avoid clogging the Nurse Advice Line with questions unrelated to health.
COVID-19
Just like with its other services, UHS requires students to schedule an appointment if they want to be tested for COVID-19. Students can either schedule a COVID-19 test-only appointment — which only takes a few minutes — or a regular medical appointment with a COVID-19 test being a part of it. Because UHS does its COVID-19 testing in-house, students should be able to see their result in their myUHS account a few hours after the appointment.
For information on how UHS is handling COVID-19 concerns, visit the COVID-19 support website.
The UHS website contains further information regarding on-campus health care. Students are also reminded that UHS is unable to provide class absence notes unless there is a serious reason for it, such as hospitalization.
“The best things you can do [at the beginning of the semester] are to try to set yourself up for as much success before you get sick as possible — getting enough rest, washing your hands,” Simcik said. “Really, the best you can do is to stay home if you don’t feel well or wear a mask if you have to go out.”