Slippery Rock University administration plans to decide whether Student Health Services (SHS) will remain in-house or outsource management by the end of the month, according to Vice President for Student Affairs David Wilmes.
This comes a year after the university created the Future of Student Health Services Committee to assess how to handle deficits affecting SHS. The committee met during the fall 2023 semester and ultimately recommended in their December 2023 report that the university refrain from complete outsourcing.
From May 1 to July 1 2024, SRU put out a request for proposals (RFP) to collect bids from potential outsourcing companies. The university has received and is reviewing multiple bids that are not currently public.
On Friday, Sept. 13, the SHS union proposed an alternate plan in a meeting with Wilmes, interim director of SHS Brian Mortimer and university human resources representatives. The plan, which is also currently under review, would lower the cost of maintaining in-house services while retaining the current staff. According to Anthony Lazzari, the nurses’ union representative, the plan involves no outsourcing.
Jayme Lipnichan, a registered nurse and board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner who spent 10 years with SHS fears that the outsourcing process has already moved too far along.
“Why were we not allowed to tell the parents of our students what was going on for an entire year?” Lipnican said. “And now it’s too late. In my opinion, it’s too late to do anything.”
Lipnichan, who received her Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner-Board Certified (PMHNP-BC) designation in October 2023, resigned from her role at the university last month.
“I was told that…somebody with my degree wasn’t needed, which is infuriating,” Lipnichan said.
In an email exchange with Lipnichan over the summer, Wilmes mentioned that the current SHS staff are equipped to treat “the low-level management of anxiety and depression” without a PMHNP-BC. “Moving beyond those conditions [anxiety and depression] goes beyond the scope of a campus health center and could put the university at a greater liability risk,” he said. Wilmes added that “higher-level needs” should be externally referred.
Nurse practitioners with Lipnichan’s certification can psychiatrically diagnose patients and formulate treatment plans including medication, something Lipnichan believes would serve the university.
The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education stated that they “desire to improve the frequency, quality, and availability of psychiatric services available to students.” In a July 2023 agreement with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), PASSHE began the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Pilot Program for the registered nurses they employ to receive psychiatric nurse practitioner certification. Lipnichan had been working on her certification before the pilot program started.
If SRU decides to outsource SHS, they will announce this in a press release, Wilmes said.
The Rocket will continue to provide coverage on the potential to outsource SHS as we receive new information.
