The University of Idaho’s Vandal Health Clinic is being renovated to accommodate a teaching clinic for the WWAMI (Wyoming, Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) Regional Medical Education program. The clinic will be closed until Jan. 2025.
In the meantime, the University of Idaho suggests and provides access to alternative clinics for non-emergency medical care. Currently, free rides are available from anywhere on campus, including the Gritman QuickCARE Clinic, CHAS Latah Medical Clinic, and Moscow Medical. According to the Vandal Health Clinic Rides team, these clinics “provide services comparable to those normally offered at VHC.” While rides to other clinics can be requested, there is no guarantee they will be accepted, as other clinics are not known to meet the eligibility requirements for the free ride service.
These rides are offered by Moscow Taxi/College Cabs. The service began on Aug. 19 and will continue to be offered until the Vandal Health Clinic re-opens. They can be scheduled on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and must be requested at least two hours in advance. Scheduling can be accessed through a form linked on the uidaho.edu page for the Vandal Health Clinic.
The clinic was vacated for renovations in May 2024. “VHC representatives have participated in tabling events and attended orientations, doing our best to ensure all students have learned about the changes to the clinic,” said Emma Zado, communications specialist at Idaho WWAMI. “We have not noticed an uptick in correspondence.” She also stated that “further communication regarding VHC updates will be [spread] to students via the Daily Register,” a newsletter sent to all employees of the University of Idaho.
Despite the University’s efforts to boost accessibility and spread information about the renovations, students have been learning about the Vandal Health Clinic closure the hard way. James Wodja, a freshman pre-nursing major, found himself redirected from the Bruce Pitman Center to the Vandal Health Clinic while trying to submit his health insurance information to the University. He was told that, while the Vandal Health Clinic was under construction, there might be information about where he could go instead.
There, sure enough, he found the Clinic closed – however, he also found a flier suggesting QuickCARE, part of the Gritman Medical Center, about two miles away by bike or foot from the Vandal Health Clinic. After biking to QuickCARE and finding there was nobody to directly accept his information, he went to the larger Gritman Medical Center building, where he was directed to Family Medicine. There, he was told to go to the Bruce Pitman Center to turn in his paperwork, “which is where I started,” he said.
Meanwhile, other students caught up in a back-to-school wave of sickness have learned of the clinic’s renovations only after seeking treatment there. Noah Swanton, a freshman majoring in political and environmental science, went from the Wallace Residence Center to the Vandal Health Clinic to get supplies for his cold symptoms, only to be met with a flier for the QuickCARE Center. Upon finding it closed, he said, “I was already wiped out… I decided to go home, yank some of my roommates’ vitamin C, [take] some ibuprofen… I just stayed in my room for a whole day, and I missed some important lectures in class, and now… not even a week into school, [I’m] behind in a couple of my classes.”
Once the renovations are completed, the WWAMI teaching clinic will allow “WWAMI medical students… to lead [appointments at the clinic] under the supervision of physician faculty”, explained Zado, although students seeking treatment will have the choice as to whether or not they are seen by a medical student.
Cal Torres can be reached at [email protected]