When students call the Health Services number after hours, they are not connected to a staff member at Brown. Instead, students reach a medical advice service called Nurse Response, which has many locations all over the country.
Health Services has been using Nurse Response since last September, when the center stopped being open 24 hours every day. Though it now closes at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, "we felt it was still very important for students to be able to get medical advice 24/7," said Lynn Dupont, associate director of Health Services.
The change in hours arose following last fall's organizational review process that analyzed cost savings in different departments. The after-hours nursing care and in-patient unit were "a low-utilized service" that had been used "less and less" over the past five years as students shifted to "more ambulatory care and the addition of full-service appointment hours both evenings and weekends," Dupont said.
Students are automatically forwarded to the hotline when they call the Health Services number after hours. After they speak to a nurse with the service, the nurse sends a triage report to Health Services, and a Brown nurse follows up with the student the following morning, Dupont said. Though not directly reachable, there is a doctor on call at Health Services that can be contacted through the advice hotline in case of emergencies, she said.
Dupont said the service receives about five calls per night on average, though some of these are "administrative" — students mistaking the hotline for the appointment-making function of the Health Services number.
Health Services has been pleased so far with the service. "The medical advice has been consistently thorough and well advised," Dupont said.
"With a new service, you're always evaluating," Dupont added. She said the only issues so far have been "logistical things, in terms of making sure they know what services we have, when we're open."
Nurse Response works with 13 schools across the country, said Sherita Haigler, manager of client services for the company. Haigler said the service is careful to provide specific information to its nurses about each school. "We don't take a cookie-cutter approach," she said. "Each school has their unique needs and we want to meet those unique needs."
When schools sign contracts with Nurse Response, they fill out a questionnaire, including information about demographics, location and "everything we have to know about the campus and the community around the campus," Haigler said. That information, updated annually, is then organized so "all staff interacting with students have it handy to review," she added.
Zack Bodinger '13 said he found the hotline helpful when he called about a medical concern. "They were very reassuring, and I really appreciated that they were able to provide good guidelines in times of stress," he said.
Brynn Smith '11 was a frequent user of the old system — 24-hour on-site nurses available by phone — when she was a Residential Counselor two years ago. But when she called the after-hours number recently, she said the service proceeded to "reroute (her) seven times," at which point she gave up.
Smith said in the future she would call the service again, but added that if she had a similar experience, she would be unlikely to continue calling.
Dupont said Health Services plans to execute a student survey about the hotline, though she said from the feedback they have received, "a majority have been pleased."
Health Services does not explicitly name the Nurse Response service on the website. But Dupont said the choice was not intentional. "We really didn't discuss it," she said. "It's not deliberate — we want students to call if they need advice."
She added, "It's important for students to know that resource is there, and that we follow up with every student."
