Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, you can get birth control from the Health Center only if you are receiving your gynecological care from us. This means that your annual exams and pap smear tests are performed here. If you wish to transfer your care here to the Health Center, please have your private physician send copies of your most gynecological exam, including lab tests, to:

Johns Hopkins Student Health & Wellness Center
1 East 31st Street, N-200
Baltimore, MD 21218
Fax: (410) 516-4784

If you need refills on your birth control pills prescribed by your private physician, there are several local pharmacies nearby.

The staff at the Health and Wellness Center cannot legally prescribe emergency contraception to non-Hopkins students. We do, however, want to facilitate your access to those individuals or organizations who can.

Emergency contraception can be purchased over the counter at a local drug store or from our vending machine located in the lobby of the Student Health & Wellness Center.

Call 911 for life-threatening situations. The closest emergency facility is the Union Memorial Hospital.

There is no charge for office visits.

There are charges for laboratory tests, injections, immunizations, medications, and medical supplies. Please talk to your health care provider for details.

There are several pharmacies located near the Homewood campus. View a complete list of local pharmacies.

The Student Health and Wellness Center will send an automated visit verification e-mail after you see one of our MD or NP providers. You may choose to forward this e-mail to your professors.

For more detailed information regarding this policy, please read the Homewood illness note policy. If you’re a Peabody student, please review the PDF Document: Peabody illness note policy (PDF)

With your permission, the Student Health and Wellness Center will send you an e-mail and copy the Dean of Student Life so that your instructors and the appropriate academic advising office can be notified.

The online forms are kept in your electronic health record. The paper health form is necessary for the verification of immunizations.

Attach what information you have to the Immunization online form in space provided for the uploaded file. When you receive your other immunizations (i.e. second MMR or lab result report for TB screen), please upload documentation (in JPG or PDF format) to https://www.shwcportal.jhu.edu/PyramedPortal under the tab called Document Upload, Additional supporting health form documents. Questions can be emailed to healthforms@jhu.edu. If your medical office wants to fax the information, please fax to 410-516-4784.

Please allow two weeks for your health information to be received, reviewed and processed. If you are not compliant you will be notified.

You will not be able to add/drop classes and processing of your information will be significantly delayed.

Attach a copy of your official vaccine history records to the pre-entrance health form and in the provider signature box write “see attached.”

See a doctor. You can receive a blood test that will check for antibodies. These tests can also be performed at SHWC, at your own expense.

Email Linda Zeigler and provide your full name, date of birth, signed copy of your appointment letter, and your SIS or Hopkins ID (if you’ve been issued one).

Yes, a completed pre-entrance health form must be submitted. However, you can attach your immunization records to the health form and submit them.

No, if you are a returning student you do not need to complete the health form again.

Yes, all new students who are eligible to receive services from the SHWC are required to complete the SHWC pre-entrance health form.

In the practice management literature, this system is referred to as “open access.” The feedback we got from students is that people would not understand what that meant and that “same-day” better conveys what we are trying to do.

What we have done is changed all our clinician schedules so that at the start of each day, each clinician has 60-80% of their appointment slots unfilled. Those get filled up as students call or come in and ask to be seen quickly. Let’s say someone comes into the health center with a sore throat and wants to be seen. In the old system, they’d have to wait until everyone in front of them gets seen – that might be 30 minutes or 3 hours. Under this system, they might be able to be seen right away or get an appointment for 1 or 2 hours later. They’ll still be seen in a timely fashion but they won’t have to wait in the Health Center. With an appointment in hand, they can go off to the library, run some errands or go back to their dorm room or apartment until it’s time for them to be seen.

We don’t think so. We looked at how students utilized the Health Center. Approximately 50% came in through the walk-in system and that was over the course of the entire day. We are starting each day with about 60% of slots free so we think we will be able to accommodate the demand. Each student will be given an appointment that works for them and they won’t have to sit in the Health Center until that time arrives.

Call SHWC as early as possible in the day to have an appointment scheduled.

That’s correct – the wording gets kind of awkward. The difference is when the appointment slot can be filled. We are using “same-day” to refer to the open slots in each clinician’s schedule that cannot be filled until that morning on Monday on until 1 PM the previous day for Tuesday through Friday “same-day” slots. These slots/appointments are to be used to accommodate students who have an urgent or pressing problem.

The “scheduled” appointments are ones that can be booked weeks in advance. These slots are designed to be used by students who want to be seen for something that is not urgent: an annual gynecologic exam, a travel consult or a physical exam. Or for someone who comes in with a symptom that they have had for weeks and want to get checked out (for example headaches). These “scheduled” appointments are also meant for students with chronic illnesses such as asthma or diabetes or high blood pressure who may need regular visits (perhaps weekly or monthly) to monitor how they are doing. Students with a bad case of mono often need to be seen weekly for 3-4 weeks so they also can use up one of these “scheduled” appointments. Women who are starting birth control for the first time usually need to come back at least once to make sure everything is okay – so both the initial and first follow-up visit could go into a “scheduled” appointment slot. The major difference between the two is that “same-days” are really geared towards accommodating students with acute illnesses or injuries.

We’re always looking for constructive feedback and helpful suggestions. Please feel free to offer any feedback or helpful suggestions by visiting the feedback page on our site.