Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health
December 8, 2021
UMass Memorial activates surge response, as inpatient levels mirror 2020 holidays
Photo | Grant Welker
UMass Memorial Medical Center's Memorial Campus in Worcester
UMass Memorial Health in Worcester is activating its surge plans immediately across its entire network as a result of an ongoing COVID-19 case spike and an ongoing bed shortage, Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of the healthcare provider said in a Tuesday notice issued to its caregivers.
“We are clearly in another surge in Central Massachusetts with a steep rise from 70 to 198 inpatient cases in just four weeks,” Dickson said. “This is exactly where we were this same time last year, leading us to our second surge, which peaked at 386 inpatients in late December.”
The hospital system Thursday officially ran out of intensive care unit beds at all its branches.
The network has 140 patients with COVID-19, Dickson said, mostly comprised of unvaccinated people with baseline medical conditions. The hospital is seeing some breakthrough cases or situations where patients are admitted for non-COVID reasons before going on to test positive while remaining asymptomatic.
“Our inhouse labs are screening for variants, which are primarily detecting the Delta variant,” Dickson said. “While there have been some cases of the Omicron variant in the state, we have not yet seen any cases at UMass Memorial.”
In response to the bed shortage issue, which is currently wreaking havoc on healthcare providers across Central Massachusetts and the rest of the state, UMass is taking steps including working to leverage relationships with skilled nursing facilities to expedite transitioning patients who need that level of care in order to free up inpatient beds, per the notice. At the same time, the hospital is activating what it called its non-provider and provider labor pools, which will require some of its frontline workers redeploy to critical areas.
Visitor policies remain specific to each hospital and department. UMass Memorial has facilities in Worcester, Southbridge, Webster, Leominster, Clinton, and Marlborough.
UMass Memorial-Harrington announced last week it would not allow visitors in its emergency departments in Webster and Southbridge, nor in its medical/surge unit in Southbridge.
The hospital network was already complying with new guidance from the Gov. Charlie Baker Administration and the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association which went into effect last week, instructing hospitals with limited capacity to reduce non-essential and non-urgent scheduled procedures to make room for emergency care.
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