Primary Care

University Health Services (UHS) at UC provides students with comprehensive primary care needs led by a primary care team composed of physicians and advanced practice providers.  Your clinicians work closely with UHS counseling and psychiatry providers, specialty clinicians, registered nurses, medical assistants, laboratory and x-ray imaging staff, and the UHS pharmacy.

The team works closely with you to provide high-quality care in a comfortable and convenient environment. Routine care includes the following:

• Establishing care with a Primary Care Provider (PCP)
• Preventive care
• Urgent visits
• Sick visits
• Procedures
• Immunizations
• Chronic conditions/Follow up management
• HIV and STI testing
• Specialist referrals

• Establishing care with a Primary Care Provider (PCP) – For the best and most consistent care, we recommend that you select one UHS provider as your PCP to establish a relationship with and serve as your main consultant for your health care needs throughout your time here at UC. You may elect or change this at anytime while attending University of Cincinnati. See here for our current available providers.
  • If you have your own established PCP, please be sure to let us know during your visit to UHS so we can appropriately document this and/or communicate with your PCP regarding your health needs, as needed.

• Preventive care – We offer both routine preventive well visits (ie. routine physicals) as well as routine gynecological visits with a UHS provider:
  • Well visit – consists of a once-yearly comprehensive history and physical examination with discussion and recommendation on preventive screenings, laboratory tests, or lifestyle modifications regarding diet and exercise.
  • Gynecological visit – consists of a comprehensive gynecological history and physical examination with a focus on preventive screenings such as cervical cancer screening (ie PAP tests), cervical cancer prevention (ie HPV vaccination), and STD screening, if applicable.  

• Urgent visits – We are able to provide care to a variety of acute issues including, but not limited to, the following:
  • Skin rashes
  • Stomach pain
  • Open wounds, cuts, or skin infections
  • Musculoskeletal injuries (ex. ankle sprains, head injury, back pain, fall injuries, motor vehicle accidents, etc)

For emergencies, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.

• Sick visits – We currently offer both in-person and virtual (telehealth, video visit) office visits with a UHS provider to evaluate and treat students with reports of active ill/infectious symptoms (ie., fevers, chills, body aches, malaise, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, ear pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc.).

• Procedures – We are able to provide care to a variety of medical procedures including, but not limited to, the following:
  • Ear wax impaction irrigation/manual removal
  • Simple wound repair/cleaning/dressing
  • Incise and drainage of cysts, abscesses, or other skin lesions
  • Cryogenic removal of warts

• Immunizations – Through both UHS provider and nursing visits, we can review your immunization records and assess your needs for any currently-due vaccinations per national, state, and local public health recommendations. We may also perform laboratory tests (titers) to check your immunity status against various diseases if you do not have complete records. We recommend that you please bring a copy of your most up to date immunization records to your visit if possible. We offer both routine adult vaccines as well as several travel vaccines at our clinic. Please see here for more information on immunizations.

• Chronic conditions/Follow up management - Aside from sick and well visits, UHS providers can also follow the management for a variety of long-term or chronic medical conditions through lifestyle measures and medications.
  • Common visit types include, but are not limited to, the following:
    • Mental health (ex. Anxiety, depression)
    • Overweight/Obesity
    • Smoking cessation
    • Asthma
    • High blood pressure
    • Migraines
    • Thyroid disease
    • Diabetes
    • Contraception (ie., birth control, such as pill, patch, ring, injection, implant, IUD)
    • HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PReP)
    • ADD/ADHD (please see this page for more information on our clinic policy/regulations)

• HIV and STI testing - Students can get HIV and STI testing (ie., chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B, herpes, syphilis) by making an appointment with a UHS provider. For added privacy, there is an option for these visits to be self-pay (out-of-pocket) so they are not processed through insurance. Test results are placed into the patient’s confidential medical record at UHS and viewable by the patient through the online UC Health (MyChart) portal. As is the case with all medical records, these records can only be released with a written consent for records release, except as required by law/court order.

• Specialist referrals – If your medical condition requires a more advanced evaluation or treatment outside the scope of primary care, a UHS provider may refer you to a specialist as needed.