HUHS Business School Clinic to Close By End of May

The Harvard Business School satellite health clinic is slated to close on May 31, Harvard University Health Services director Paul J. Barreira said in an interview last week.

The Business School’s satellite clinic is located at the heart of its campus, roughly a mile away from the the Harvard Square clinic in the Smith Campus Center. The Square clinic will now serve as the only University health center for Business School students.

Barreira said conversations about the move took place between the Business School and HUHS this past fall and winter. He cited the increased number of services offered in the Smith Campus Center location and also the growing connections between the Business School and the University as two of the main reasons for moving the clinic space.

“Several reasons contributed to this decision, including increasing space constraints at HBS, the wide array of services available at the Smith Campus Center, and the growing diversity of joint degree and cross-registered HBS students who are traveling throughout Harvard,” Barreira wrote in an email statement to The Crimson.

Jana Kierstead, the executive director of the MBA and doctoral programs, also credited the rising number of joint degree students as part of the reason for the satellite clinic’s closing.

“We have now have 10 percent of our student body doing joint degrees and they are taking classes all across campus,” Kierstead said.

Located in the Smith Campus Center, the Harvard Square clinic acts as the hub for HUHS. It currently offers primary care and internal medicine, counseling and mental health services, behavioral health, as well as other speciality services. The Harvard Square clinic also houses Urgent Care — a 24/7 service open to Harvard affiliates in need of immediate medical attention.

The Business School clinic, however, is limited to providing services Monday through Friday.

Business School patients have been informed of the the different steps they can take in order to maintain their care in the midst of the clinic’s relocation. They are provided with “opportunities to connect” with HUHS Chief Medical Officer Soheyla Gharib if they need medical advice when deciding on new primary care providers under the new system, according to HUHS Spokesperson Michael Perry.

“We have every confidence that patients will experience a seamless transition of care from the HBS clinic to the Harvard Square clinic,” Perry wrote in an email to The Crimson.

Despite the closure of the HBS satellite clinic, the two other satellite clinics — located at Harvard Law School and Longwood Medical Area — have no plans to close anytime soon.

“When the HUHS Law School Clinic was renovated a few years ago, the space for the clinic was thoughtfully planned and a significant investment was made by the Law School to support an HUHS presence on their campus,” Perry wrote. “The Medical Area Clinic serves three schools in the Longwood area: the Medical School, the Dental School, and the School of Public Health, and is heavily utilized.”

—Staff writer Michelle Kurilla can be reached at michelle.kurilla@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @MichelleKurilla.

—Staff writer Sam E. Sharfstein can be reached at sam.sharfstein@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @SamSharfstein.