Student Health Center — Local services in Tuscaloosa

I would honestly give this place -10 stars because that's how horrible my experiences have been in the past 3 years of being a student. They have misdiagnosed me many times causing me to have to go to another urgent care center and spend more money on medicine. At least their medicine works, the UA student health center is a joke of a health center that does not know how to properly treat students. I went in last week for sore throat pains. I've had strep many times before and I was very certain it was strep again. There was even white pus ( sorry) all over my tonsils. I told the doctor all of my symptoms. I also had a minor cough so I informed him of that as well. He proceeded to prescribe me everything for a minor cough. Decongestant pills, throat lasagnes, promethazine syrup, the whole 9 yards. Nothing for my throat, the main reason I went in. After looking at my prescription sheets I asked him what will help my throat? You didn't prescribe me any antibiotics. He looked at me like I was completely DUMB. He told me it should help. So I said whatever and filled the medicine. Took it for 3 days with no change. My throat has progressively gotten worse with white pus spots all over my entire throat. I'm currently typing this review on my second hour of waiting in the Northport emergency...

It does no good to try to call and make an appointment because no one ever answers, but if you don't already have an appointment when you walk in you can sit there for up to three hours. Not an overexaggeration, my family and I have sat in their waiting room for hours. My mother was actually hung up on once after hours on the phone trying to get in contact with someone. When I was seven years old, I went into this very clinic multiple times with "strep throat" and they couldn't tell me, after looking at my pus-covered, golf ball tonsils many times, that I had tonsillitis. Recently I went in with concerns of scoliosis, and the person they sent in didn't even bring the tool to check the curvature of my spine, which IS starting to curve. Another time when a nurse was checking my hearing in the box thing they have, she didn't shut the door, so of course I couldn't hear anything and I had to shut the door myself. They switched my brothers and I to the Fayette clinic and didn't inform my mother, resulting in her being charged for bringing her child to this clinic. We still are in the seemingly neverending process of getting switched back to the Tuscaloosa clinic. It's not worth anyone's time to go here, find a walk in clinic...

The SHC is buns. Some of the doctors there are somewhat competent, but the CRNPs are terrible.

The first time I went was for COVID, and they gave me antibiotics (don't need that for a virus), vitamins, and an inhaler. I ended up telling the pharmacist to just give me the thing I actually needed. They also prescribed me taking daily baby aspirin for multiple months??? There is no evidence for that treatment in preventing clotting from COVID, as well as having bad side effects. This was with one of the terrible CRNPs.

The second major time I went was for mono. I originally went in not knowing what I had, and, though a good doctor may have noted all my mono signs and that I was negative for COVID and flu, they did not. Instead, they prescribed me antibiotics (???) and steroids, neither of which treat mono, and the latter of which should not be given out for unknown illnesses. Both the doctor and the CRNP I had to see were terrible.

My advice is if you know what you have or know you might have something testable, then go, otherwise go...