UMass Memorial Medical Center Reopens Command Center Amid Delta Variant Surge

UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester has reopened its command center operations.

The hospital cited what it called three "emerging crises" as contributing factors: a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, a lower number of hospital beds in the region due to the St. Vincent strike and a nationwide labor shortage in the health care industry.

Dr. Michael Gustafson, president of UMass Memorial Medical Center, said that the reopening of the command center will help the hospital prepare for contingencies for the next several months. He joined WBUR's Morning Edition to discuss.

Below are highlights from their conversation, which have been lightly edited.

On how COVID cases contributed to the reopening:

“Yesterday in Massachusetts, [the state] reported over 1,300 positive cases; that's the highest level in about three-and-a-half months. We also watch the positive testing rate for the state, which is up [to nearly] 3% — and there are parts of the state that are in the 5% to 10% [range]. Those are predictors that the number of people in the hospital will continue to creep up."

On the closure of 100 hospital beds in the region:

"In Worcester and central Massachusetts, we are the most under-bedded part of the state, in terms of number of beds per 100,000 citizens. In the previous phases of the pandemic, it was really important to collaborate with our other hospitals within the region; we were able to share resources and patients as needed, including a field hospital. With the current work stoppage, they've had to take about 100 beds out of the service. That's about 25% to 30% of the med-surge capacity at St. Vincent's. So it just decreases the overall regional capacity."

On the factors contributing to the more than 400 vacant positions at UMass Memorial:

"Normally we would have somewhere between 200 to 300 vacancies due to normal turnover. Over the last 18 months, we've had a lot of people leave the health care workforce. This is a local, regional, national phenomenon. People have retired early. People are cutting back on hours primarily because of extreme burnout. We also see a lot more people taking partial or full or temporary leaves."

On the morale of health care staff:

"Our staff are just really tired and really burnt out. We're trying to focus on how do we best support them. We're going to be approaching almost two years of managing through the pandemic. It's really hard to keep going day after day.

"I would say morale is challenging. But the thing about health care workers is they're amazingly resilient and always trying to put the patient in the middle of what we're doing. As long as we keep focused on that, I think we'll be able to manage through whatever this next phase brings."