Indiana University Health Center

Our History

In 1895 with an outbreak of scarlet fever the University found a house to isolate people in until such time as they got well or passed away (that sounds crude, but there wasn't much medical expertise in those days).

In the early 1900's they moved into an era where they had a "sick house" and it is unclear as to whether there was anything more than someone modestly trained in medicine.

In 1939, recognizing the growth of the University and the inherent need to provide quality medical care, the Board of Trustee's established the first Health Center. It was located over near the chemistry building.

The current facility was completed in 1965 and at the time was a 105 bed in patient infirmary. It was actually bigger than Bloomington Hospital when it was built, but the hospital quickly started expanding.

In 1979, Counseling and Psychological Services became part of the Health Center and the patient rooms were used as clinic offices. This was far from an ideal setting. The third level remained in-patient care until 1983, when it was determined that there was little need for inpatient care and the cost of providing it was skyrocketing.

The Health Center operated in these areas with little or no renovation until 1994, when some upgrades were done on level 3 to make it more patient friendly and to move the medical records department to the North wing where they had adequate space for the 88,000 records it currently holds.

In 1996, a major renovation on levels 2 and 4 was done and included expanding the pharmacy, clinical lab, cashiers area, ADA bathrooms, and gutting the entire 4th floor. The fourth floor was then made into a state of the art Counseling Center with tremendous attention paid to confidentiality. The walls, doors and ceiling were specially designed to be sound proof.

In 2002, the first level of the facility and all the air conditioning, heating, water pipes and other infra structures were replaced and upgraded. This included creating a suite for the School of Optometry intern program that offers two exam rooms, an IT department, Physical therapy and all the administrative functions.