Exeter Community Reflects on Health Center Capacity
By KAROLINA KOZAK, LYDIA KUHNERT, ISHAAN SINGH, HANNA WEI, and GRACE YANG
Image courtesy of exeter.edu
As the winter tightens its grip on campus, Exonians are confronted with the harsh realities of the New Hampshire chill. With biting winds and heavy snowfalls creating an icy environment, the seasonal shift brings not only frigid temperatures but also an uptick in illness among students. As daylight fades earlier and academic demands intensify, the health and well-being of the community hang in a delicate balance, resulting in a Lamont Health Center swamped by students.
At first, Health Center appointments were processed quickly, according to lower V Murdaya. “When I was in the Health Center, it wasn’t as crowded yet. They had told me that they were quite busy, but they had space to accommodate me…They had about a 40-or-so-minute wait initially when I got to the Health Center, but they were able to go through testing fairly quickly and I got placed into a room about an hour [after] I got there,” he said.
However, as the week progressed and more students caught sicknesses, walk-in appointments at the Health Center were significantly dragged through an unusually long and tedious process. Even for something as simple as receiving allergy medication, wait times became unbearably long. Prep Daniel Kim recollected a recent visit, saying, “It took me three hours. It’s not really anybody’s fault in the Health Center. It’s just really full because there’s so many students who are sick.”
Once inside, the waiting room transformed into a microcosm of distress and anxiety. Lower Julia Zhou recalled her visit, “There were so many people sitting in the waiting room, I could see eyelids drooping, and mouths hanging open through the mask. The majority of people were severely ill, it was really traumatizing.”
The ambient noise — a low hum of hushed conversations and the muffled sounds of coughs – did little to mask the overwhelming sense of urgency. Postgraduate Lucian Glesier added to this sentiment with his own experience, “When I was in the waiting room, every single seat was full, there were probably around half a dozen to a dozen other people standing or sitting in the space between the two doors.” The increased amount of sickly Exonians endangered the health of the common space. “When my doctor, Dr. Bradley came out, she ushered me outside, and we talked outside the Health Center because she thought it wasn’t a good idea to be standing in a room full of sick students,” Glesier added.
During the extended wait time to see a healthcare provider in the Health Center, many students resorted to doing homework while waiting. Lower Emma Li examined this issue during her initial visit. “The first time I came in, the wait time was too long, so I had to reschedule for another appointment,” she recalled. “After that, the wait time was around 15 to 30 minutes, and I also had to wait to get an overnight room because they figured out I had a fever, but it was a pretty automatic process from there.”
Students were also released from the Health Center with continuously severe symptoms. Lower Daniel Chen shared his concerns about being discharged while still symptomatic, “They told me I couldn’t stay in the Health Center any longer since I hadn’t had a fever for 24 hours, but the system is kinda illogical — since I simply took Tylenol continuously for 24 hours and was then sent off with many of my symptoms still severe.” With the influx of patients, the Health Center has faced pressure to prioritize space for new cases, often sending students back to their dorms before they fully recover.
Kim also recognized the prioritization of more serious illnesses, noting that, “The Health Center is so full up to a point where they turned away a couple of people with strep throat because apparently the only thing serious enough to be in the Health Center is influenza and Covid.”
The uprising of sickness and diseases has further strained the Health Center’s resources as reports of dwindling supplies were disproportionate to the number of sickly Exonians. “I heard that they ran out of a lot of tests for Covid and strep and that sounds concerning, especially considering everything. I was lucky enough to get a test, but there must be a lot of sick people who aren’t getting diagnoses right now,” Zhou recalled.
In the face of these challenges, students have taken more proactive measures, such as wearing masks more frequently to curb the spread of illness. However, being sick at Exeter comes with a price. Many students, burdened by the weight of academic expectations, have been forced to use their limited fatigues or dickeys to catch up on missed work. “When I got out of the Health Center I had so much work to make up — I used all three of my fatigues for exactly that,” Chen said.
Despite the chaotic encounters in the Health Center, many students acknowledge the efforts of the Health Center staff, who are working tirelessly under unprecedented circumstances. “This isn’t the fault of the Health Center,” Glesier emphasized. “From what I’ve heard, even staff and students haven’t seen anything this bad before. More accommodations could have been made, and they probably could have been better stocked on tests, but they’re doing their best. Don’t fault the nurses or doctors.”
