Robert Bauer, who was injured in a small plane crash in Stow, MA, reunited with Flight Nurse Andrea Knox, on the day he was being released from UMass Memorial Medical Center.
HOPKINTON, Mass. - Hopkinton High School is the first school in Massachusetts to get state approval to drop the in-school mask mandate and a local pediatrician is weighing in on the decision.
In order to meet the state's threshold for removing masks, at least 80% of all students and staff at the school have to be vaccinated.
HFMA President and CEO Joe Fifer interviews Sergio Melgar, CFO at UMass Memorial Health, about his history with health systems in peril and what he thinks could come out of pandemic-era changes.
WORCESTER - UMass Memorial Health President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson said that, while things are “still very tight” regarding bed availability in Central Massachusetts, the mask mandate appears to be working, with COVID test rates roughly halved in recent weeks.
WORCESTER, Mass. - Healthcare providers are putting out the reminder for people to get their flu shots.
With strict COVID-19 restrictions such as mask wearing and social distancing in place last year the amount of flu last season was less than normal. Doctors are concerned with the easing of these restrictions, flu and other respiratory illnesses will return to pre-pandemic levels.
BOSTON — The pandemic has created a lot of stress. Often a simple way to find relief is a glass of wine or a beer.
Surveys show drinking is up significantly, particularly among women.
Massachusetts hospitals are bracing to lose hundreds of employees as deadlines for employees to get a Covid vaccine mandates approach.
While vaccination rates at Massachusetts hospitals are high, thousands of workers have yet to meet the criteria ahead of deadlines, which range from Oct. 1 at some hospitals to Nov. 1 at others. Those who haven't confirmed they are vaccinated could face termination.
WORCESTER, Mass. - After another emergency advisory from the CDC, local medical leaders are calling on pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The message advises pregnant women to protect not only themselves, but their baby from the harmful virus.
WORCESTER — The head of the largest healthcare system in Central Massachusetts says the hospital bed shortage and staffing crisis at UMass Memorial Healthcare have reached a tipping point.
As 25 Investigates’ Kerry Kavanaugh learned, plans are in the works to add more beds at the Worcester hospital, but requiring workers to get the COVID vaccine as a condition for employment could translate into fewer staff to care for patients.
On Thursday’s Boston Public Radio, Dr. Eric Dickson described the current situation at UMass Memorial Health as “the perfect storm,” after its hospital system ran out of ICU beds on Wednesday — 18 months after the COVID-19 pandemic officially began.
Dickson is the President and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, which has hospitals in Worcester, Southbridge, Marlborough and Leominster.
It’s time — long past time — to settle the St. Vincent Hospital nurses strike.
I’ve written about the strike before. The nurses said they walked to protect their patients and demanded better staffing requirements. To make their case, they produced a mountain of complaints, many verified by nursing supervisors, that documented unsafe patient conditions.
The nurses’ strike at Saint Vincent Hospital reached 200 days on Thursday. It’s the latest milestone of a work stoppage that officially began on March 8 with nurses bundled up in frigid temperatures. Summer has come and gone and the work stoppage has become the longest nurses’ strike in the history of the state.
The grievances go back to 2020, though, and have evolved since.
The nurses strike at Saint Vincent Hospital, which began in March, reached its 200th day on Thursday.
The hiatus between the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Tenet Healthcare began over staffing but now continues because of a return-to-work provision.
FRAMINGHAM — Upon dropping her daughter off Tuesday morning at McCarthy Elementary School, Maureen Ferdinand reminded the 7-year-old girl, Clara, to pull her mask up.
Like many parents of young children, Ferdinand is eagerly waiting for the COVID-19 vaccine to become available to those younger than 12. She said she trusts what the schools are doing, but "they're kids and I have to tell her to pull her mask up over her nose every two minutes."
The largest hospital system in Central Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Health, ran out of intensive care beds Wednesday as critically ill patients with deferred chronic health problems and those stricken with COVID-19 overwhelm health care providers.
Dr. Eric Dickson, president and chief executive of the system, described the situation as dire, but said patients are getting the care they need. UMass has hospitals in Worcester, Marlborough, Leominster, and Southbridge.
WORCESTER — In a letter to their striking colleagues on Wednesday, doctors at St. Vincent Hospital are imploring nurses to return to work to help patients amid a COVID-19 surge.
The nurses' strike, the longest such strike in state history, reached 199 days on Wednesday.
Dr. Eric Dickson is weary. He says the hospital system he heads has reached a crisis point.
He's the president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, based in Worcester. He says the region has almost 20 times more COVID patients hospitalized than in June, and that as of Tuesday, there is not a single intensive care hospital bed available in central Massachusetts. When a bed opens, there's a patient waiting to take it.
WORCESTER, Mass. — Almost six months after becoming eligible to get it, Sarah Thorstenson was finally convinced to get the COVID-19 vaccine by her own eyes.
“Absolutely, if you would see these people -- if the people at home could see what’s going on in here -- there would be no doubt you would go an get the vaccine don’t wait until it’s too late,” Thorstenson said.
Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, called the current hospital system in central Massachusetts a 'crisis situation.' He said the ongoing strike between Tenet Healthcare and nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital plays a major role.
"We need to get those 600 nurses on the sidelines back to work," Dr. Dickson said. "Get those beds open."
WORCESTER, Mass. - Every year, UMass Memorial Health collects unwanted firearms in exchange for gift cards, and now they're putting the guns they destroy to use.
They've partnered with a blacksmith and students from Valley Regional High School to turn the old firearms into gardening tools. Students from UMass Medical School are using them to harvest vegetables from the garden on campus. The firearms were made into shovels, hoes and even some household décor. The students started work on the garden in the spring and want the food grown here to help people in the community.
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