Blizzard Underscores Need For Community-based Healthcare, Says Outer Cape Health Services

HARWICH PORT – The Blizzard of ‘26 showed that when roads close, power is disrupted and travel becomes dangerous, access to local health care is a necessity, not a convenience. The storm underscored the need for health care to be available close to people’s homes, whether it’s for older adults, people managing chronic conditions, families with young children, and those without reliable transportation to make the trip to Hyannis or beyond. 

 While Outer Cape Health Services’ Harwich Port health center had generator power throughout the storm, both of the building’s two internet connections were down, and the roads were not initially safe for patients or staff. But largely using tele-health protocols perfected during the pandemic, Outer Cape Health Services (OCHS) was able to carry out many of its primary care services for most of the week.

 “This was actually a significant test of our forward-looking philosophy of access to care,” said OCHS Chief Executive Officer Dr. Damian Archer. OCHS remained open to virtual care “to the greatest extent that we could do it, through the entire blizzard and for the whole week,” he said. 

 OCHS pharmacies in Wellfleet and Provincetown opened on Wednesday, and Harwich Port opened Thursday.

 “It was really critical to get our pharmacies up,” Archer said, since many commercial pharmacies were still closed later in the week. While the generator was on in Harwich Port, the facility couldn’t operate without a data connection. “It isn’t like how it used to be when we had paper charts and everything was in a filing cabinet,” he said. 

 A federally qualified nonprofit community health center, OCHS cares for more than 20,000 patients annually, and no one is denied access to services because they cannot pay. Their prime mission is to ensure health care access to people on the Lower and Outer Cape, some of the most medically isolated areas in the state.

 Particularly on the Outer Cape, “when things are down, people have nowhere to go,” Archer said. The use of tele-health technology is particularly valuable for patients in rural, isolated communities far from the nearest hospital. While some patients need a physical examination or treatment, “there’s a whole lot that can be very safely done through tele-health,” Archer said. Patients receiving routine care or chronic disease management are particularly well suited to remote doctor’s visits, as are people receiving psychiatric or other mental health services, which are “mostly by tele-health even when the weather is fine,” he said.

 Still, connecting doctors with patients remotely requires both parties to have a data connection. Before the storm arrived, patients were asked to reschedule routine visits until later, or to be prepared that their tele-health visits might not happen because of power or data outages. The storm had a significant impact on the Harwich Port center, “both on a personal level and on a work level,” site Medical Director Andrew Chin said. In some cases, it helped having clinicians who were remote enough to be largely out of the blizzard’s path.

 “We had someone who was in New Hampshire at the time, doing what they could for a couple of patients,” Chin said. Another clinician had a generator at home and access to a WiFi hotspot. “She actually invited other clinicians over to have some hot cocoa and have a space to work,” he said. “Everyone just banded together to support each other and our patients.”

 Tele-health is also useful between storms because it helps address one of OCHS’ key challenges: sustainability. Not only does remote work allow access to clinicians who live in communities where housing is easier to find, but it allows appointments to continue, keeping the revenue flowing. Providing federally-mandated care is expensive, Archer noted, and it’s a perpetual challenge providing as many people as possible with quality primary care. “We’re always understaffed, always underpaid,” he said.

 Archer said the blizzard is an opportunity for the community to reflect on the importance of accessible healthcare and the resources needed to keep that infrastructure intact. It’s key for OCHS to engage Lower and Outer Cape residents to encourage their gifts of “time, treasure and talent” to make that happen, Archer said.

 Learn more at www.OuterCape.org.