To: Wellesley Faculty and Staff
From: President Paula A. Johnson and Vice President and Dean of Students Sheilah Horton
Re: Enhancing Health Services at Wellesley
Date: August 26, 2019
We are writing to share with you that Wellesley is establishing an innovative new collaboration that will provide our students with enhanced and expanded high-quality health services here on campus. Starting November 1, 2019, Newton-Wellesley Medical Group (Newton-Wellesley), the physician group of Newton-Wellesley Hospital, will provide on-campus medical care at Health Services at Wellesley.
Newton-Wellesley Hospital—recently ranked the top community hospital in the state by U.S. News and World Report—has been providing extraordinary emergency care, specialized care, and inpatient mental health services to our students in recent years. Additionally, Newton-Wellesley Hospital is part of Partners HealthCare, one of the premier health systems in the world.
Staffing changes in the health center and ongoing student feedback prompted the College to explore new ways to deliver health services. After much consideration, we have decided that Newton-Wellesley is ideally situated to strengthen Health Services at Wellesley.
Improved and expanded health care at Wellesley
Starting in September, the College will begin offering expanded hours to ensure that our students can access the highest standard of care when needed. Specific benefits students will experience over the next few months include:
- Expanded Health Services hours and appointments. Starting September 3, Health Services will be open from 8 am to 6 pm on Tuesday and Thursday (first appointment 8 am, last appointment 5:30 pm) and from 8 am to 5 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (first appointment 8 am, last appointment 4:30 pm). This immediate change will give students greater and more convenient access to care on campus.
- Access to high-quality sports medicine. Starting immediately, our varsity student-athletes and outstanding athletics training staff will have access to Newton-Wellesley’s leading sports medicine program, which currently provides team physician services at Boston College. Our club sport athletes will also have an expanded clinic with our athletic training staff.
- Continued close integration with the Stone Center Counseling Service. Wellesley will continue to operate the Stone Center and will work closely with the Newton-Wellesley team to better serve students with mental health needs.
- Continued close coordination with our health education and nutrition team. This team, headed by Claudia Trevor-Wright, has formed a new Office of Student Wellness that will oversee wellness initiatives across campus.
- Increased access to specialized care. In addition to Newton-Wellesley Hospital, the Partners network includes other renowned area hospitals, such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and McLean Hospital.
Additionally, after November 1, students will have greater access to after-hours care with Newton-Wellesley’s after-hours nurse practitioner on-call service, access to Partners’ state-of-the-art electronic health record system, and there will be additional staff on hand at Health Services.
Staffing at Health Services
We have been working closely with Newton-Wellesley and the team at Health Services to ensure a smooth transition with no interruption in care for our students and strong physician supervision of the practice.
Starting immediately, Dr. Sarah Rosenberg-Scott will be the interim medical director of Health Services. Dr. Rosenberg-Scott, a board-certified family medicine physician, is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine and has had affiliations with Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Baystate Noble Hospital, Cambridge Hospital, Milford Regional Medical Center, and New England Rehabilitation Hospital. As interim medical director, she will care for students and oversee Health Services through November 1. After that, Dr. Rosenberg-Scott will work with the new permanent medical director to ensure a smooth transition.
Also starting immediately, Dr. Robert Nascimento will serve as the team physician and interim medical director of sports medicine, providing clinical oversight to Wellesley’s strong team of athletic trainers. Dr. Nascimento is chief of sports medicine at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and head team physician for Boston College Athletics. He is board-certified in orthopedic surgery and is an assistant clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Medical School, where he also completed his orthopedic surgery residency before completing a fellowship in sports medicine at Boston University. After November 1, Dr. Nascimento will continue to support our athletics program and serve in an advisory capacity to the permanent medical director.
Starting November 1 with the transition to Newton-Wellesley, Wellesley is very pleased to welcome Dr. Jennifer Schwartz as the new medical director of health services and sports medicine. Dr. Schwartz will visit campus to introduce herself to students and parents on orientation day.
A board-certified family medicine physician who also specializes in sports medicine and eating disorders, Dr. Schwartz joins us from Beth Israel Deaconess Family Medicine in Brookline, Mass. She received her medical degree from UMass, completed her residency and internship in family medicine at Tufts University, and completed a sports medicine fellowship at UMass. She is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Schwartz will oversee Health Services and will also serve as Wellesley’s team physician.
Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Rosenberg-Scott will be joined in Health Services by a team of outstanding nurse practitioners and other health care professionals. This strong team will include both new employees and familiar faces, and we know that they will take excellent care of our students.
As part of this transition, all of Wellesley’s clinical staff were offered positions to continue their roles in Health Services at Wellesley College. Some have chosen to leave Wellesley at the end of August, and others will be staying longer. We recognize that change can be difficult, and we thank the employees who have decided to leave for their service and contributions to the care of our students.
A new era for health care at Wellesley
Over the next few months, we will be finalizing the details of this new collaboration and preparing to implement many of these changes.
We are confident that this innovative collaboration with Newton-Wellesley will mark an even stronger era of health care at Wellesley. Our students deserve the world-class medical care for which the Boston area is renowned. Newton-Wellesley—with the outstanding team it is bringing to our campus, its network of specialized providers, and its operational expertise—will give our students a level and quality of health care we simply could not offer on our own. They deserve nothing less.
If you’d like more information about these changes, please refer to this FAQ.
