In helping hands

Feeling sick or accidentally locked yourself out of your car? UTRGV Health Services and University Police are here to help.

The departments offer many services, from getting your flu shot to recovering lost items.

Steve Machner, a physician assistant at the Health Services clinic in Brownsville, said it offers a variety of services for students.

“We see students for physical exams, chronic medical illness or address acute care problems,” Machner said.  “If a student happens to be working out at the Rec or playing basketball and turns their ankle or has an injury that needs to be evaluated, they can come see us and for chronic care, if there’s a patient that has problems with cholesterol, thyroid, we can help manage the chronic course of that illness.”

The clinic also provides routine checkups.

“We offer immunizations, we just got our new vaccines and we’ll be pushing those really hard to students,” Machner said. “Vaccines are free, they are a first-come, first-serve basis and you can’t beat free. We also provide laboratory services for students who need their cholesterol checked, want to have diabetes screening performed, as well as STD testings on Wednesday, from 9 to 4, with a short break for lunch. We have free HIV testing.”

UTRGV offers a health insurance plan to students. Beverly Estrada, an office assistant in Brownsville, helps students who are interested in buying the insurance.

“It covers ER visits, if you need to see a specialist that [is] part of the network,” Estrada said. “There might be some services [that] may not be offered here at the clinic, so having an insurance can help them cover those fees.”

Students who already have insurance can use it to help cover the cost of services the clinic offers. They can either call to set up an appointment or walk in.

“We realize that some things can’t be scheduled,” Machner said. “If you sprain your ankle at the gym and you can’t put weight on your foot and you need to be seen right away, we’ll look at you. Appointments are nice, but we know that not everyone can take the time to get scheduled and come in.”

Health Services has physician assistants and nurse practitioners on both campuses. They are able to prescribe medication to students.

“We do prescribe medication, but we are bound by certain limitations,” Machner said. “There are some controlled medications that we cannot write for. It’s beyond our prescriptive authority, but all routine medication like antibiotics, itch creams, rash creams, most all of that we can write for. In Edinburg, they actually have a pharmacy in-house at their clinic, but we work with discount drug lists from the local pharmacies here.”

University Police keeps students and campus facilities safe 24/7. They provide services such as training civilians how to be safe during emergencies and host interactive events with the community.

“Here in the UT System, we have police officers on both campuses and our response time is very quick,” Police Chief Raul Munguia said.

Their authority is not limited to the campuses.

“We are a full-service police department,” he said. “A lot of people don’t realize that, they think we’re a campus [department] but we have jurisdiction in 48 counties in Texas, anywhere that is in the UT System, we have jurisdiction.”

Criminal justice junior Nancy Lopez found her missing laptop with the help of the police department.

“I went to my classroom and checked if it was there and someone told me it would be at the police department,” Lopez said. “I get there and they told me no one has turned it in yet. They told me leave my number with them and other information, and they were able to get back to me to pick up my laptop.”