There’s a Hartford HealthCare-GoHealth Urgent Care location a few minutes off the Connecticut College campus in New London, but a new partnership brings high-quality, comprehensive healthcare even closer for students and faculty.
Hartford HealthCare (HHC) and Connecticut College announced a partnership July 8 designed to enhance student health services and athletic training at the school starting in August as part of efforts to both elevate the level of service and integrate student health and well-being across the campus.
“This is an opportunity to use the resources across Hartford HealthCare to strengthen and support the campus,” said HHC President and CEO Jeff Flaks, noting that the partnership will include student healthcare, urgent care, behavioral health services, sports medicine and athletic training, as well as access to a state-of-the-art medical records system.
Connecticut College is the third secondary school in the state to join the HHC Campus Care program, which delivers healthcare through the schools’ student health services department, making connections to specialists in the healthcare system when needed. This latest affiliation capitalizes on HHC’s expansion of services in southeastern Connecticut.
The announcement also comes at a time when college officials across the country are grappling with the safest way to bring students back on campus as the COVID-19 pandemic still rages. HHC clinicians will help Connecticut College staff implement new COVID-19 protocols when students return in the fall, and will help guide prevention and monitoring efforts.
“We have particular sensitivity around infectious disease,” Flaks said. “There will be significant efforts around infection prevention and putting best practices forward. This will provide more strength and more security to all Connecticut College families.”
Victor Arcelas, dean of students at the college, said HHC’s mission closely aligns with their efforts to ensure student health. He added that a particular strength of the partnership will be the skills HHC athletic trainers bring to the school’s student athletes, working with them “before, during and after practices and games.”
The athletic program will also benefit from sports neurologists, sports nutritionists, concussion experts and other specialists at HHC, he said.
“We will be integrating student health services and sports medicine,” Arcelas said. “The urgent care will allow us to expand the hours services are available.
“I’m incredibly impressed with the level of integration we’ve had so far.”
Dr. Eric Walsh, medical director of GoHealth, said his New London office is “a stone’s throw” from the Connecticut College campus, but students can also use telehealth services to seek medical care from their dorm rooms.
Katherine Bergeron, president of Connecticut College, called the partnership a “visible sign of our commitment to the health of our students,” and she anticipates the value of working with a healthcare system with “expertise in population health.”
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