Barreira To Announce 24-Hour Care Center, UC Leaders Say

UPDATED: November 17, 2014, at 1:50 a.m.

University Health Services Director Paul J. Barreira is expected to announce a 24-hour walk-in urgent care system to replace Stillman Infirmary when it closes next semester, according to top Undergraduate Council leaders.

The announcement would come after many students criticized the University’s decision to close Stillman in order to shift resources to other UHS services.

Sietse K. Goffard ’15, the Council’s vice president, said Barreira called him a few hours before the UC’s meeting on Sunday night. According to Goffard, Barreira said that after reading and responding to students’ emails and meeting with his team, he intends to announce a 24-hour walk-in urgent care center, ideally in the same location as Stillman.

“[Barreira] very strongly emphasized his understanding that there really needs to be a physical place where people can go to,” Goffard said.

While Goffard said the center would not have beds for students overnight, as Stillman currently does, there would be trained nurses to provide treatment and assess whether patients needed to be transferred to a local hospital. Students would be able to stay at the care center for a few hours, according to Goffard.

“This would be a place where students could bring their friends in emergencies such as alcohol intoxication, so that they could be checked,” Goffard said.

The in-person triage system is designed “essentially to replace” Stillman, Goffard said.

After Goffard informed the UC of Barreira’s impending announcement, the Council voted to express its disapproval of the infirmary’s closure and to formally request that Barreira respond to additional questions about the health service changes and incorporate student feedback in determining future changes.

The legislation called on the administration “to place their decision on hold and collect campus-wide input from students before going ahead with any further steps.”

Barreira and UHS administrators—in partnership with the UC and HealthPALs, a liaison group between UHS and students—will host two question-and-answer sessions this week.

Before the vote, the Council invited Taonga Leslie ’15, who published an editorial detailing potential problems with phone triage and co-authored the Council’s legislation, and Jack J. Huang '16, a HealthPAL representative, to discuss the recent health service changes.

Huang detailed student concerns he had heard, which included questions about the cost of ambulance rides to nearby hospitals and waiting times once they arrived. UHS officials are currently considering the possibility of a vehicle to provide transportation to Mt. Auburn Hospital, and are working with the hospital to streamline the process for Harvard affiliates who do not require emergency room care, Huang said.

Huang also said that the UHS pharmacy, currently housed on the first floor of the Smith Campus Center, will be relocated to another area of the building closer to other UHS services.

UC President Gus A. Mayopoulos ’15 and Goffard said that they were continuing discussions with Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana regarding the possibility of a new grant that would draw in part from money currently used to fund Drug & Alcohol Peer Advisors.

—Staff writer Noah J. Delwiche can be reached at noah.delwiche@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @ndelwiche.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: November 17, 2014 

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the class year of Taonga Leslie. In fact, he is a member of the Class of 2015.