Planning Your Visit

Before Your Visit

Scheduling Tips

• When scheduling your appointment please inform us of all your symptoms and needs when obtaining your appointment so that enough time may be allotted to address your concern(s). Your provider may not be able to address all of your issues if they are not shared at the time you schedule your appointment.
• Please do not schedule an appointment within 2 hours of your next class or engagement.  Providers may be running behind or in-office testing may take some time.
• Please note that we are usually less busy in the morning.  We therefore tend to have more availability for appointments in the morning and wait times are often considerably less than the afternoon.
• We advise that you call as early in the day as possible if you think you will need a same day appointment.

Unattended Visits

The Student Health Center wants to maintain access to timely service for all Georgetown University students. Each time a patient misses an appointment without providing proper notice, another student is prevented from receiving care. With this policy, we want to encourage students to be responsible and understand the impact they have on other students.

Late Policy

Patients are advised to come 15 minutes prior to their scheduled appointment time. If a patient arrives more than 5 minutes after their scheduled appointment time, the patient will only be seen by a provider at that provider’s discretion.

Late patients will most often have to reschedule their appointments. Rescheduled appointments may not be available for the same day as original appointment day. Rescheduled appointments for urgent matters may be discussed with the triage provider of the day for an exception.

Medstar Patient Portal

Please visit www.mymedstar.org and follow the instructions to set up your secure, personalized My MedStar Patient Portal account. In less than five minutes, you can be connected to the information you need for a healthier you. Please note: prior to registration you must have been seen in person by a MedStar physician or at a MedStar hospital on or after July 1, 2014.  If you enrolled in the patient portal prior to January 22, 2018, you will need to re-enroll in our new portal.

If you need assistance registering for the portal, please contact MyMedStar support toll free at (877) 745-5656 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

At Your Visit

For the safety of our patients and staff:

• All patients with cough, nasal congestion, sore throat, fever, or generalized rash are recommended to wear a mask covering their nose and mouth when in the clinic. (Face masks will be available onsite for patients.)
• Patients may request that providers and associates wear a face mask in their treatment area as well.

• Patients are encouraged not to have visitors/friends/family accompany them at appointments unless it is necessary for assistance due to disability. We have translation services available if needed. We would like to reduce the number of exposures as much as possible.
• Students with questions or concerns are encouraged to call or message in the portal with questions or concerns.
• We discourage dropping into our clinic for an appointment or questions. Our priority is checking in those with appointments and answering any phone calls.

Wait Times

It is difficult to anticipate the amount of time each patient will need with their provider. For this reason, there are times when you may need to wait to be seen after checking in.  Wait times may vary but we will strive to make sure you are notified of any anticipated wait time.

What to Bring:

• Your student identification card (GOCard)
• Your insurance card every time you visit the Student Health Center.
• Arrive at least 15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time in order to check-in and complete forms.
• If you are taking medication, please bring either a list or the actual prescriptions of your current medications and dosing instructions with you to your appointment.
• Make sure all of your demographic information (name, date of birth, address, etc) is up to date when checking in for each visit.

After Your Visit

You can use the MyMedStar secure patient portal to communicate with the Student Health Center online from a computer or your mobile device.  This service is available online 24/7 and allows you to:

• View and manage appointments
• See test results
• Non-urgent communication with your care team
• Renew prescriptions
• Access your health records
• And much more…

If you do not have a MyMedStar portal set up, the visit summary provided by your clinician at your appointment will have detailed instructions on how to sign up for the portal. You will also get an email at the time of your first visit with instructions on how to create a portal account or you can ask our front desk staff for a brochure with detailed instructions.

For more information on the function, security, and use of the MyMedstar portal please visit MyMedStar.org. You can also obtain support for your account 24/7 by calling 877-745-5656.

Messages sent through the Georgetown.edu email or personal email will be not be answered—as it is not a secure form of communication for discussing confidential health information.

Medical Excuse Notes

The Student Health Center does not provide “Statement of Fact” confirmation, or medical excuses, to students in situations where there are no objective physical symptoms or findings (such as stomach complaints or headaches) or when a student has self-managed symptoms which have resolved without treatment from the Student Health Center. In such cases, it is simply not possible for us to verify or validate the illness and doing so would place an undue burden on the clinic’s resources limiting access to care for other sick students. 

If you are ill and cannot attend class but do not have a condition that warrants a medical evaluation, you should not schedule an appointment solely for the purpose of obtaining a note. If you miss a class, assignment, or exam due to an illness, we highly recommend you speak with your instructor and/or Dean prior to or at the time of any missed work. We are happy to evaluate you at the time of an illness or problem that you feel cannot be managed with self-care and warrants a medical evaluation.

In circumstances where the Student Health Center staff determines, through objective medical findings, that a student’s illness warrants a medical excuse be written, our staff will continue to do so. These may be situations such as a student with a fever over 101 F; a student with active vomiting or diarrhea; or a student with a communicable disease such as influenza or Covid.  Regardless of the reason for a visit, we will provide a verification of appointment (Day and Time) without specific medical information if requested by the patient.