Unless you’re Superman or Wonder Woman, there’s a good chance you’ll come down with something a flu bug or a bad cold, perhaps during the time you’re a student at Kansas University.

When you do, reach for the phone and call Watkins Memorial Health Center, 864-9500.

Dr. Myra Strother, right, checks Kansas University student Tami Reid's ear canal during a visit to Watkins Memorial Health Center.

If you want, you can go straight there it’s the big building behind the Robinson Center but you might have to wait a while, so it’s better to call ahead.

“We encourage people to give us a call before they come in,” said Carol Seager, director at the health center.

“That way, they can talk to a nurse who will help them determine whether to make an appointment, or if there’s some sort of bug going around, she can send them to the corner pharmacy to get whatever the most effective over-the-counter medicine happens to be.”

Two years ago, it was usual for students to wait two hours to see a doctor. So last year, the health center launched a campaign aimed at getting students to call ahead.

“It’s worked really well,” said Dr. Myra Strother, the health center’s chief of staff.

“Our satisfaction surveys showed us going from 70 percent walk-in and 30 percent call-ahead, to the reverse 70 percent call-ahead, 30 percent walk-in,” Strother said. “The goal now is to get to 90 percent call-ahead, 10 percent walk-in.”

Last year, 72 percent of the students at KU spent some time with the folks at Watkins, either on the phone or in person.

“We log about 75,000 patient visits a year,” Seager said.

Most visits involve colds, flu bugs, ankle sprains or eating something that was uh well past its digestible prime.

Others are more serious: depression, mononucleosis, substance abuse, the consequences of unsafe sex.

The health center’s staff includes nine doctors and four nurse practitioners all of them full-time.

“We’re open seven days a week and into the evenings,” Strother said.

Besides the customary doctor’s visits, the center operates a pharmacy and specialty clinics that emphasize sports medicine, physical therapy, allergies, immunizations for traveling abroad, gynecology and men’s health needs.

It also has an emergency room that’s ready to handle all but the most dire of emergencies.

Funded by student fees and health insurance payments, the vast majority of the health center’s services are “totally free,” Strother said.

The center does charge for walk-in visits after 4:30 p.m.

The health center’s mission goes beyond just helping sick students get well. It’s also there to educate.

“We do a lot to educate students on high-risk behavior and to encourage them to make good choices,” Strother said.

Most of the time, she said, that involves steering students toward better food, less drinking and no smoking.

“In this environment, we feel like we have some real teachable moments,” Strother said.