A failed search for a new director of Student Health Services and the resignation of a part-time nurse practitioner has forced the College’s primary medical office to cut services to just 28 hours per week. While the search for replacement staff continues, the Associate Dean of Student Life is taking on some director responsibilities while SHS will lean on a new partnership with a New London urgent care clinic to meet students’ health needs.
Following the retirement of SHS Director Cate Moffitt last winter and the resignation of interim SHS director Shauna Rago last spring, the College conducted a summertime search for a new director. At least three people were interviewed for that position. One received and rejected an offer. None were hired.
With nobody currently occupying that position, Senior Associate Dean of Student Life Sarah Cardwell is handling many non-clinical duties of the SHS director.
The Director of Student Health Services traditionally serves both clinical and administrative roles, treating patients while handling budgeting and representation of SHS in meetings. The SHS director reports to the Associate Dean of Student Life.
Cardwell is not playing the complete role of SHS director as she is not licensed to conduct clinical work. She says she does not have access to student medical records and is “not in the weeds of the actual medical care,” attributing that to her lack of a medical license. She is not included in medical conversations that would normally include a SHS director, such as a discussion on a student’s medical treatment.
Speaking to SGA this past Thursday, Cardwell says she is involved in “things like the budget, in the hours, the communications of things about health services out to the campus.” Cardwell coordinates with SHS staff on schedules, represents SHS in meetings and works directly with staff about non-medical concerns and problems.
In addition to Cardwell’s title of Senior Associate Dean of Student Life, she is the Deputy Title IX coordinator; she is responsible for the College’s student-based Honor Council; she supervises the Office of Wellbeing and Health Promotion; she works closely with the Director of Student Wellness, Alcohol and Other Drug Education and with the Director of Sexual Violence Prevention and Advocacy, a position that is currently vacant.
It is not clear how much time Cardwell spends as an administrator of SHS in proportion to her many other roles on campus. Cardwell says she doesn’t know how much time she puts in: “I just do what I know needs to be done. Right now, I’m working a lot more nights than I normally do.”
Meanwhile, there is no formal medical leader of SHS. Cardwell says that two SHS nurse practitioners and the College’s contracted physician, Dr. Michael Kilgannon, are making medical decisions.
Though Cardwell referred to Dr. Kilgannon at Thursday’s SGA meeting as the “medical director of health services,” the College’s website does not give him this title, describing him as “the medical director at both Saint Joseph’s Living Center in Willimantic and Medeast Walk-in Clinic.” Dr. Kilgannon does not appear in the College’s internal directory in that role or at all. All other SHS staff appear in that directory.
Cardwell says the “unanticipated” resignation of a part-time nurse practitioner this past summer left SHS “with an even bigger hole in the hours.” She characterized a rush to hire a nurse practitioner as a top priority, saying she has “personally gone to extremes” to find someone she describes as an “emergency hire.”
This does not appear to be a search for a permanent fix. The College’s current “Nurse Practitioner” job listing describes a part-time, non-salaried, no-benefits temporary position that will end in May 2019.
Though Cardwell says the search for a director is ongoing, there is no current listing on the Connecticut College website for that position.
Short on clinical hours, the College has turned to the GoHealth urgent care clinic, located near the New London ShopRite. Cardwell says the College’s partnership felt necesary “when it became apparent that we were going to be short hours at the beginning of this year.”
Cardwell described the new relationship as “an expansion of what we offer on campus” because they offer more hours than SHS and they provide services like “X-Rays and stitches” that SHS can’t offer in-house. She also noted that students can use a Uber-based service through campus safety that will not require students to pay out-of-pocket for transportation to urgent care.
While SHS remains understaffed, it cannot be a full-time medical office as it has been in the past. Cardwell claims this is a “temporary situation” and she says the College is “feverishly trying to reopen so that we are open 9 to 4, 9 to 5, whatever the hours will be.” •
