Some Drake University students have reported negative experiences at the Broadlawns Community Clinic at Drake, located across University Avenue from campus. All students have access to Broadlawns Community Clinic for medical and mental care needs through the University’s student wellness fee. 

Mara Schell, a junior studying anthropology, isn’t sure that most students know they pay for Broadlawns. 

“I think it’s good to have this care that you don’t have to pay for item by item,” Schell said. “But also, if students aren’t using it, there might be a way to opt out. It’s something to think about.”

Schell has had both positive and negative experiences at Broadlawns. The positive experience occurred during her first year when she got pink eye. She said the diagnosis was quick and she was prescribed antibiotics right away, which she was able to get at Walgreens. 

But when Schell developed finger fungus on the tips of her nails as a result of inadvertently trapping water underneath artificial nails, the care she received at Broadlawns was far different.

Schell said that the doctor she saw in October 2023, Dr. Tyler Folkerts, left the room to search up her condition.

“He’s like, I’m going to look it up. Well, I could have looked it up myself. And then he prescribed me eyedrops for my nails. [Then] he essentially said if the nail isn’t solved by this [eyedrops], we might have to surgically remove it. And I was like, woah, that’s extreme,” Schell said. 

Schell said that Folkerts didn’t seem to listen to her explanation of the condition. 

“He wasn’t really listening to any of the story I had to say,” Schell said. “I was like, this is what happened. Can you use this in your diagnosis? And he was like no, I’m just going to look it up.”

Schell said that a friend of hers went to Broadlawns for chest pain, and one of the doctors was pressing on her chest after she [the friend] told him the pain was internal, not external.

“It’s that kind of stuff,” Schell said. “They’re not really listening to what students are saying when they come in with medical concerns.”

Dr. Nicholas Galioto believes that there is sometimes a “misconnection” between student patients and the physicians.

“But is there a reason why you feel like the physician wasn’t listening to you? And so sometimes there’s a little bit of misconnection in any setting between the physician and the patient, but that’s why you have follow ups or you try to create an environment where the patient feels it’s at least collaborative,” Galioto said. 

Tamara Chance, chief medical officer at Broadlawns, would encourage patients to speak up at the end of their visits. 

“A lot of the time at the end, a lot of providers will say, ‘Do you have any questions?’ and so we can certainly encourage that as well,” Chance said. 

As a result of her experiences with Broadlands, Schell said that she would be hesitant to go back in the future, especially for a condition she could look up herself. 

“It’s not necessarily deterring me because it is care given through the University, but it’s not necessarily good quality care,” Schell said. 

Brook Wenande, a P1 in pharmacy school at Drake, was given an incorrect idea of her medical condition at Broadlawns. After waking up in excruciating pain and being unable to eat, she went to the clinic and was seen by Galioto. She was given tests, shots and X-rays.

“They told me that there was nothing else they could do after telling me that it could be a really dangerous issue like pancreatitis,” Wenande said.

Wenande remembered being scared during that visit.

“I thought I was going to die,” Wenande said. “I really didn’t know what to do. And when the professionals are telling you something, obviously you want to believe them, and those words were not something that I took lightly.”

Wenande was then sent to Mercy Hospital downtown, where she was given an IV bag and a CT scan. She learned the issue was intestinal — far less serious than pancreatitis. Wenande felt like she’d “wasted her time” at Broadlawns and was nervous about the medical bill she’d receive.

“I think they [Broadlawns] didn’t know what to do, and so they tried a bunch of things,” Wenande said. “Maybe it was a bit overkill. They could have originally said to go downtown instead of me spending more money at Broadlawns.”

Galioto said part of diagnosing a patient is negotiating uncertainty. 

“If you’re coming in with different and non-specific complaints or generalized things … a lot of it depends on patient feedback, obtaining the history, proceeding with what is going to be the most common diagnoses and working through those,” Galioto said. 

Shell believes that the gender makeup of the doctors at Broadlawns could be a barrier for students. 

“There are no female doctors. Maybe that could deter some women from getting care because they’re not comfortable seeing a male doctor. I know I don’t really like the male doctors,” Schell said. 

Chance pointed out that while there are no female doctors at Broadlawns, there are two female advanced practitioners and a female nurse practitioner.

“They have full scope of ability to take care of patients,” Chance said. 

Wenande doesn’t believe that Drake administration is aware of student issues with Broadlawns or that investigating issues is top on their list of priorities. Still, she believes it’s important to focus on feedback. 

“If they’re going to promote it and offer it, I think they need help to hold them accountable and get student feedback on it,” Wenande said. 

Despite her personal experience at Broadlawns, Wenande believes in the medical credentials and expertise of the practitioners there.

“They obviously got their degrees and they are doctors,” Wenande said. “I think the level of compassion and treating students could be better, especially with so many students going there looking for help.”

Fees for Broadlawns services are covered under the umbrella of student services, with other services like Access and Success, Disability Services and Recreation Services. The Drake student survey includes questions about these services and students are able to rate their experiences on a scale of one to five and leave comments. The area of the survey that most closely aligns with Broadlawns’ services is a category labeled “Student Health.”

Galioto said that the survey feedback is where the clinic gets the majority of its student feedback. Tammy Chance, the chief medical officer for Broadlawns, also pointed out that there is a feedback mechanism on the Broadlawns website. 

Chance said that when feedback is received via the website, she reviews it with patient advocates.

“If there’s concerns, we bring those forward,” said Jerry Parker, dean of students and vice president of the University. “I don’t want students to feel this aspect of retaliation. We don’t operate like that. I wouldn’t tolerate it. When issues come up, letting us [administration] know what those issues are allows us to then be able to address them.”