Lafayette health center explains new initiatives

Bailey Health Center has new initiatives for students including increased hours, online scheduling, new part-time staff members, and a therapy dog named Raven, whom The Lafayette reported on in October.

The health center, which according to Director of Health Services Jeffrey Goldstein, gets around 7,000 visits each year, is using these new initiatives to expand its presence on campus.

The Bailey Health Center now opens its doors all seven days of the week. The hours have expanded from last year to include the 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. slot on Monday-Thursday, which Goldstein and his staff refer to as “Bailey after hours.”

“My goal is that a student should not have to wait 2-3 days to be seen,” Goldstein said. “[In] most office practices that is the reality. If they [the students] are distressed, we want to help them in a timely fashion.”

The increased hours have met an increase in use by students.

“Almost every day, even during the extended hours, slots are filled,” Goldstein said.

To keep up with demand, the health center has added part-time staff, including two medical assistants, and an additional mid-level provider on a part time basis.

“We have [also] extended our relationship with the orthopedic surgeon from Coordinated Health Services and have added access so that our club and intramural sports members can see him as well as varsity athletes, free of charge,” Goldstein said. Coordinated Health Services is a privately owned physicians’ practice in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey.

“Our relationship with a top notch organization like Coordinated Health really greases the wheel and speeds the process of doing tests where most offices take a week to get stuff done,” Goldstein said. “We can pick up the phone and get an MRI tomorrow for most people.”

According to Matt Bayly, the director of sports medicine, the expansion of services with Bailey Health Center has been particularly helpful for athletes dealing with injuries and illnesses during practice.

“Rather than having to send someone off campus whether it would be to an urgent care or even a hospital, we can now send them to Bailey’s and they can stay right on campus,” Bayly said.

According to Goldstein, new initiatives also include online self scheduling through the electronic health record portal in order to help to avoid the hassle of calling for an appointment. This new method is also helpful for athletes, Bayly said.

“Being able to self schedule has been helpful since sometimes the injuries don’t draw attention to themselves until the wee hours,” Bayly said. “It’s nice to be able to go online and check the availability.”

These new additions to staff are part of an increase in resources to medical services that Bailey Health Center has been making for the past few years. A specialist in Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders now sees students one to two days a week, and the chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Lehigh Valley Hospital also provides services at Bailey. These services, according to Goldstein, require no billing or insurance.

“We want to make Bailey’s more warm and welcoming so that students feel like they are treated as not only a patient, but as a part of our family,” Goldstein said.

To do this, Bailey’s includes a television, a Keurig coffeemaker, snacks  and most recently, Raven, the therapy dog that roams freely among the center.

“I want to make sure that when students come to the health center, from the phone to the time they are discharged, that they feel they are being treated with compassion, respect and quality health care,” Goldstein said. “I do feel a change in the air.”