Fir wood. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Twelve exam rooms. Open seven days a week.

In addition to these features, the new Health Center on Oregon State University’s campus boasts an abundance of natural light and open space, as well as the return of an on-campus pharmacy located just across the street in the Samaritan Athletic Medicine building.

The Health Center has been about a five-year-long collaboration between Student Health Services and Samaritan Health Services that is expected to open in late June. 

The building sits in the southern end of campus — in some exam rooms, you might find yourself just 12 inches from the edge of Reser Stadium. This location also offers patients a larger parking lot than Student Health’s previous location at Plageman Hall in the northern end of campus.

In addition to providing Student Health and Samaritan Health medical services, this project will include the addition of an on-campus pharmacy in the Samaritan Athletic Medicine Center and the Center for Advocacy, Prevention and Education’s shift from Plageman Hall to the Student Experience Center.

Student Health Services will continue to provide comprehensive care to students, with the added benefit of Samaritan Health Services providing same-day, after-hours care in the evenings and on weekends when Student Health Services isn’t open, according to Kelly Hower, executive director of Student Health Services. 

“The Plageman Building was initially built as an infirmary, not as a clinic,” Hower said. “This constrains the way in which the clinic can flow. In terms of collaboration, having Samaritan as a partner in providing easy access to care when Student Health Services isn’t operating will be a huge benefit to students, as well as faculty and staff. Faculty and staff will also benefit from access to Samaritan Health Services primary care services.”

Beyond the spacious lobby, the first floor of the Health Center includes a lab space and occupational health services affiliated with Student Health Services.

According to Mark Ylen, public information officer for Samaritan Health Services, there will be an onsite Samaritan Family Medical Clinic, which will provide full-service primary care for students, faculty, staff and the community, as well as a SamCare Express offering everyone same-day treatment of health problems that are not life-threatening.

The center’s third floor offers conference rooms for care providers and allergy care services for patients. On the fourth floor, OSU’s Student Health provides reproductive healthcare through Oregon ContraceptiveCare and STI testing. 

Scattered throughout the four floors are designated spaces for providers to collaborate and discuss patient care in depth, gender-inclusive bathrooms and lactation rooms.

“We are down to the last couple weeks of finishing up the final touches,” Hower said in a press conference on May 23. “We plan to move the major part of the clinic from the old building into this space the week of the 20th of June, and plan to open and operate at the very end of June, beginning of July.”

Samaritan will move into the Health Center mid-July, added Kelley Kaiser, the senior vice president and chief administrative officer for Samaritan Health Services.

For Samaritan Health, Kaiser said this collaboration created the opportunity to expand their primary care services within the Corvallis area while supporting students and faculty as well as community members.

“The shift across campus will give us an opportunity to redefine Student Health Services on campus,” Hower said. “We will be having certain parts of Student Health actually not located in this building. We are defining this building to be where we are providing our medical services, our primary care services, lab.”

As part of the Health Center’s mission to provide all aspects of medical care, the Center for Advocacy, Prevention and Education will have one Advocate in the clinic who can meet with survivors looking for both healthcare and advocacy services.

This summer, the rest of CAPE, including their Prevention team and the rest of their Advocacy team, will move from Plageman into Suite 350 of the Student Experience Center, on the third floor.

Student Health Services hours of operation will continue to be Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. for in-person visits, with telehealth appointments being available until 6 p.m. 

Samaritan Health will be open every day, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on the second floor of the new building.

“Any student who pays the health fee has access to basic office visits with Student Health Services at no charge,” Hower said. “If other charges are incurred during a student’s visit, Student Health Services will courtesy bill insurance if we have this information on file. Insurance details are collected as part of the new patient process. Most insurers will consider Student Health Services to be out of network. We do offer a Student Health Insurance Plan through PacificSource that is considered in-network at Student Health Services, and is available to students if they are interested.”

On the other hand, while Samaritan Health Services will charge students for all services, they are more likely to be able to bill your health insurance.

“For Samaritan Health, we are pretty much covered with all insurance companies, so all insurance companies would be accepted and taken in,” Kaiser said.

Across the parking lot from the Health Center, you will soon be able to find the new on-campus pharmacy, located on the other side of Reser Stadium in the Samaritan Athletic Medicine building.

The last time OSU had a pharmacy on campus was in May 2020. After decades of providing pharmacy services to the OSU community, it was forced to close because revenue was not enough to continue operations.

“The pharmacy is scheduled to open later this summer and will offer both convenient walk-up and curbside service along with free delivery of prescriptions by mail,” Ylen said.

“The building we’re currently in, while it has so much memory, it’s nostalgic, it’s ready for us to move on. The cooling doesn’t work consistently, you know, it’s a very old building. I think people are excited to work in a new space,”Hower said. 

In Plageman right now, Hower said they have one provider with one exam room, which is extremely limiting. 

“Here, having multiple rooms that aren’t assigned to just one person, you can have multiple students coming in at different times and being seen a little more efficiently,” Hower said.

The new Health Center also includes a large break room to be shared by both Student Health and Samaritan staff and encourage further bonding between both organizations.

“It’s definitely a great opportunity for students, especially to get access when Student Health Services is not available, they can come to the Samaritan services,” said Jessica Lopez, a member of the Student Health Advisory Board. 

It seems more accessible, with more opportunities, said Lopez, and helps the student body overall.

“I think the fact that we’re going to have a full-time psychiatrist here is going to open doors for a lot of students,” said Isabelle Ginavan, another member of the Student Health Advisory Board. “There’s just not as many resources in Corvallis as there could be, so I think it’s really great for students.”

Student Health will continue to offer rapid-care services at Tebeau Hall on campus during the upcoming academic year, while it will be closed this summer.

If you’re worried that the center’s proximity to Reser might lead to excessive noise from games on the weekend, Hower said it’s not a concern. 

“I came and I tested it out during a spring game,” Hower said. “I came in that Saturday and went floor by floor. And it actually wasn’t bad… I did worry about that when we picked this spot, but I think it’s going to be okay.

Since Student Health Services will be closed on the weekend, any extra sports entertainment would really only impact patients seeking medical care over the weekend from Samaritan Health, and even then, the impact will be minimal.

As for the future of Plageman Hall, the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex, a $200 million structure, is being built in the parking lot that Plageman currently resides in.

“There’s not actually space for them to have construction trailers anywhere on that side of campus, so Plageman is going to become a construction trailer during the time that they’re building that,” Hower said. 

She said Plageman will eventually be renovated and repurposed for use outside of Student Health Services that is not yet decided upon.

Below is a detailed list of services offered at the Health Center.

Student Health Services:

• Primary care
• Allergy and asthma care
• Gender-affirming care
• HIV prevention
• Immunizations
• Laboratory
• Mental health services
• Nutrition
• Oregon ContraceptiveCare (CCare)/reproductive healthcare
• Sharps disposal
• Sports medicine
• STI testing
• Tobacco cessation
• Travel Clinic

Samaritan Health Services:

• Primary care for faculty/staff/community
• Same-day appointments through SamCare Express for all community members
• Pharmacy (at the Samaritan Athletic Medicine Center)