Sports Medicine

Department Policies 
1. The training room is an area specifically reserved for student-athletes and the Sports Medicine staff, which includes physicians, so that they are able to interact with an expectation of privacy and safety. 

2. All medical referrals must be approved by the Director of Sports Medicine. This includes referrals to the psychologist, nutritionist, optometrist, dentist, orthopedic, or internal medicine referrals.

3. No form of therapeutic treatment is to be performed on any student-athletes in the training room other than by the medical staff. Coaches, administrators, and other personnel are NOT to administer any treatment whatsoever in the training room facility.

4. Student-athlete treatment plans will be determined and executed solely by the medical staff. To maintain consistency and uniformity, any input by a non-medical staff individual should be given to the Director or Assistant Director of the Department of Sports Medicine or to a physician assisting that student-athlete.

5. Annual physicals must be on file prior to any participation in athletics. Physician and physical therapist evaluations are scheduled regularly in the summer and early fall for every sport for convenience. Due to medical liability, DePaul will only accept physicals done by physicians who work with our student-athletes.

6. Due to logistics, it is not possible for the training room to provide transportation for scheduled appointments for medical attention. It is the responsibility of the individual student-athlete and his/her coach to make those arrangements. The cost of transportation is paid for out of the respective student-athlete's team's budget. Every effort is made to make these visits convenient by utilizing local sports medicine professionals.

7. Walk-ons/those wishing to try out for a team are responsible for payment for physicals. Payment must be received at the time of the physical. Charges will be determined annually by the Department of Sports Medicine. Any injury that occurs during the try out or before the student-athlete makes the team is the financial and legal responsibility of the student-athlete.

8. The following situations will not be covered by the department or by our secondary insurance carrier:
a. Any illness that is unrelated to athletic participation (e.g. appendectomy, dermatology and gynecology testing).
b. Injuries occurring outside of scheduled practices or games (e.g. recreational sports, intramurals or pick-up games).
c. Expenses for a pre-existing medical condition.

9. The training room staff (certified trainers/students) cannot dispense any medication due to strict enforcement of the Illinois Athletic Trainers Practice Act. Only physicians may dispense medication from the training room. All requests for medication at times when the physicians are unavailable in the training room will be referred to Sage Medical Heath Services.

10. The training room staff will coordinate all doctor appointments. If a student-athlete misses his or her scheduled appointment, he or she must reschedule the appointment time. Student-athletes must acquire proper paperwork authorizing the subsequent visit prior to attending their rescheduled appointment time or they will be responsible for payment.

DePaul University HIPAA Policies
DePaul University is required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of student-athlete medical information. We are also required to give notice to all student-athletes about our privacy practices, our legal duties, and student-athlete's rights concerning medical information. We must follow the privacy practices described in the DePaul University Privacy Practices Notice which took effect April 14, 2003 and remains in effect until and unless replaced by a new notice.

We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our notice effective for all medical information that we maintain, including medical information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this notice and send the new notice to our health plan subscribers at the time of the change. A student-athlete may request a copy of our notice at any time.