New Emergency Department telemedicine program offers off-hours care to college students

A telemedicine program, a formalized system to enable video or phone appointments to efficiently connect patients with health care practitioners, was in active planning at Tufts Medical Center when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020. The subsequent societal shutdown and the increased demand for medical care – and especially for emergency and urgent care services – led the team in the Emergency Department (ED) to spring into action to plan for a unique new program that would utilize telemedicine to triage emergency and urgent care services. 

So when Berklee College of Music in Boston approached Tufts Medical Center about a possible partnership to serve the urgent health care needs of its students, the ED team knew the timing was right to launch the telehealth program.

Imagine being a college student – in the midst of a global pandemic – experiencing a mild, or even severe, health concern and miles away from family without a local physician to call. The new program, known as Tufts MC Care Now, is bridging that health care gap. The program officially opened to Berklee students in November 2021 and is offered through a partnership between the college and Tufts Medical Center to fill the periods of time when student health services are not available. Previously, the college had been relying on various offsite telehealth systems and wanted to shift to a model that allowed access to local physicians and hospital services. 

Tufts MC Care Now is available 11 am to 11 pm daily and on holidays. Students must book their 15-minute appointment blocks at least one hour in advance. Onsite ED physicians meet virtually with the student to assess and triage their health care needs. On some occasions this includes a discussion about COVID-19 symptoms, while other appointments may involve a review of symptoms and routine care. If the need for acute care is determined, the ED physician has the ability to prioritize an in-person appointment for the student. To date, the program has not only triaged non-urgent care needs, but has offered patients referrals to the Respiratory Infection Clinic, as well as other Medical Center departments including Primary Care, Dermatology and Otolaryngology. The Tufts MC Care Now team is led by ED physician Katie Lupez, MD, who anticipates a growing demand for the service and is already planning for expansion to other Boston-area colleges and universities.

A parent of a Berklee student recently shared her own experience after her daughter was diagnosed with COVID-19 and utilized the Tufts MC Care Now. “One week later the ED physician called my daughter for a telemedicine visit. He was concerned about her breathing and asked her to come in for tests. Everything turned out fine. Abby’s experience in the COVID area of the ED could not have been better. Everyone was attentive, kind and caring.”

The benefits of telemedicine in an Emergency Department setting can be great, both for patients and for health care providers. For the patient, it reduces unnecessary trips to the ED or other urgent care centers and possible exposure to Covid-19 or other communicable illnesses. If, following a telemedicine appointment, a referral to a medical specialty is required, the patient is already registered in the Tufts MC system, which allows for streamlined scheduling and, most importantly, continuity of care. For health care providers, telemedicine can play a significant role in reducing the logistical challenges they routinely face, which have increased exponentially during the pandemic, like bed capacity and staffing demands.

Says Brien Barnewolt, MD, Chairman and Chief of Emergency Medicine at Tufts Medical Center, “We are busy, we are busier than we’ve ever been (in the ED), and on top of that we are experiencing a reduction in our workforce due to quarantine and isolation requirements associated with COVID. Telemedicine programs like Tufts MC Care Now, in collaboration with our college and university partners, can alleviate the pressure on the overloaded emergency services system. This way we can save those beds for patients who are sicker and who really need our assistance in the emergency room setting.”