UHS Survey Unique Among Universities

One day after the release of an independent study of University Health Services (UHS) found just 58 percent of students rated their overall care as good or better, health care providers at other schools said they faced similar problems but lacked similar survey data to quantify them.

Harvard is one of the only universities in the country to assess health care quality by surveying a random sample of its undergraduate population--including non-UHS users--through e-mail and mail, according to Rosenthal.

And so, when UHS officials went looking for a similar survey at another university, they couldn't find one.

"We can't find any good benchmarks," said UHS Director David S. Rosenthal '59.

MIT and Yale have plans to undertake random-sample studies like Harvard's in the future, Rosenthal said. But at the present time, MIT, Yale and Princeton only survey students after they receive care from their health services.

"[Ours] was not that kind of survey--we do those all the time," Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal says--and schools who survey students after health appointments agree--that this method of surveying probably produces disproportionately positive feedback. This is because many of the students survey have just come from having their problems diagnosed and treated.

"It is a bit self-serving, I would agree," said Elizabeth Langan, director of administrative services at Princeton University Health Services.

She said the satisfaction rate in surveys distributed to exiting patients at Princeton generally ran in the 80th percentile or above.

Rosenthal says one reason other schools don't run similar surveys is that they are expensive. He speculates, also, that they may be afraid of getting less-than-stellar results.

Are they afraid of the bad news?" Rosenthal said. "I don't know."

Rosenthal said a colleague at another college polled a percentage of students in a similar way and also found that people surveyed through random sampling techniques "really are very severe critics."

However, Langan said she wouldn't expect a similar survey at Princeton to produce results as bad as Harvard's.

"I really would find that unexpected," she said.

Still, other schools' health officials said problems that the Harvard survey highlighted, such as long delays and unfamiliarity with health offerings, were not unheard of at their schools, either.

Princeton University Health Services makes an effort to increase communication with students through its "Gratitude and Gripe Day," where members of the organization's student advisory board "sit in the student center and solicit commentary from our student patients," Langan said.

According to Katie Cotter, Yale Health Plan's senior member services representative, Yale students who fill out comment cards in the health center often complain about long waits for popular services.

Yale is currently implementing an "open access" appointment system to reduce waiting times, guaranteeing students an appointment within three days in response to student complaints.

Like Harvard, Yale is trying to increase awareness of health service offerings by distributing "stress balls, frisbees and water bottles"--as well as information, Cotter said.

Yale College Council President Jamie Ponsoldt said the outreach efforts at his school have made a difference.

"It seems like the undergraduate health services is making a concerted effort to reach out to students at this point," he said. "There's a real strong effort here, reaching out through other student organizations."

Still, he said, some dissatisfaction with University health offerings may be par for the course.

"I think most students see it in the same way as they see dining hall food," Ponsoldt said. "It's what we've got, it's what you're going to go to, you don't have much choice about it."

"I don't think they're ecstatic about it, but I haven't heard anyone saying they're going to blow up the place," he added.