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NIU Student Health To Be Managed By Northwestern Medicine

Northern Illinois University

Northern Illinois University will put its student health services under Northwestern Medicine's management next year.

The change has been in discussion since earlier this year. NIU was in the midst of program prioritization, a process that evaluated individual departments and suggested ways they could operate more efficiently. NIU Executive Vice President of Student Affairs, Michael Stang, says student health was no exception.

"The goal, of course, was to try to enhance the student experience, and make it more affordable at the same time," he said.

NIU previously sought a health care provider for student health services, but nobody responded after the initial request. That changed when NIU President Lisa Freeman met with leaders at Northwestern Medicine to work out ways the health care provider could bolster the university's student health offerings. 

Dr. Patrick Towne is President of Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group. He says the result of those meetings is a partnership where his organization will take a managerial role. He says a key change will be the introduction of walk-in hours.

"When you injure yourself or get sick, scheduling an appointment out isn't always the most convenient," he said. "Sometimes you just want to walk over and get taken care of and we'll have that capability as well."

With this new partnership, students also will be incorporated into Northwestern Medicine's unified record system. Stang says this can help if they need to see specialists outside the university.

"When a student comes in and sees a new provider, they won't have to start with a whole medical history and start all over because the provider will already have access to all of that information, for those students that are already part of the Northwestern network," he said.

NIU's student insurance will be in-network for Northwestern Medicine, and NM will offer a discounted student health fee for a comparable level of service. Stang says this is a financial boon.

"On a per-student basis, it will be a nominal amount, 10 to 12 dollars per student. On a campuswide basis, it amounts to tens of thousands of dollars of savings for the university, but really it's savings for the students," he said.

But this transition won't be without growing pains. About 30 NIU employees currently work in student health services, and Stang says many will need to make some sort of transition.

"Some of our staff are going to retire," he said. "Some have enough seniority to move to a different kind of position at the university. Some of them were hired by Northwestern to continue to provide the same kind of service that they're providing now, and unfortunately, some of the staff will have to go and look for a different job," he said.

This is because Northwestern Medicine already has services such as scheduling and record keeping, which would make some positions redundant.  

Northwestern Medicine runs many hospitals and medical facilities across Chicago and northern Illinois. That includes DeKalb's Kishwaukee Hospital. Dr. Towne admits this partnership is a new experience.

"This will be the first time we have done student health services as part of Northwestern Medicine's mission," he said.

And then there's the question of how physicians will feel about working for both Northwestern Medicine and NIU. 

Some doctors feel there are benefits to working in a college setting.

Dr. Ted Grace is Director of Student Health Services at Southern Illinois University. Its health system is run internally, and he says that can be an attractive prospect for doctors, particularly those wanting to focus on primary care.

"Physicians find, especially when they've been in practice a while, that it's nice not to have night call, hospital privileges, weekends," he said. "And it's kind of nice to sit back and get a salary and not have to go out and do all the billing that you would in a private practice."

At the same time, Dr. Grace admits SIU's system is just as subject to budgetary issues as any other university. SIU hasn't increased its student health fee for years, and medical inflation can limit funds.

"So in the past year, we cut out physical therapy," Grace said. "We used to have a dental service. We've just had to cut back in some of the ancillaries we were able to provide before and cut back to our core."

NIU's changeoverwill be fully implemented on January 15th.