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Dr. Eric Dickson, chief executive of UMass Memorial Health Care, said these factors make the timing of the latest COVID wave particularly tough. “As we started to see this uptick, we were really overwhelmed trying to catch up with a lot of work that had been put off for the last two years [and] dealing with staffing challenges,” he said. “We were starting from a position of weakness in health care, and then you're laying this on top of it.”

“For a radiologist who has been reading scans and always had IV contrast, to ask them to read without it, they will miss things,” said Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Memorial Health. “It’s a horrible shortage. And it has significantly impacted operations. Ultimately we’ve had to do scans without contrast or withhold the scan.”

Speaking on children’s mental health, Dr. Abita Raj, a child and adolescent psychologist with Community Healthlink, said it’s important to keep an open dialogue. 

“Checking in, if you notice something different, talk,” Dr. Raj said. “Talking is so important. Some kids are open and some kids are going to push you away, but the fact that you asked and engaged is so, so important.”

Community Healthlink, an organization within the UMass Memorial Health system that provides mental health services, has been chosen by the City of Worcester to assist a new crisis response model for 911 calls. 

Giving new nurses the first-hand experiences they need is the goal of UMass Memorial Medical Center’s Graduate Residency Program.

Karen Uttaro, UMass Memorial director of education, said, “(Graduate students) are assigned to a particular unit, and they have a whole year to go through the program. The first 13 weeks are really the most intensive part.”

With abortion rights threatened by an imminent Supreme Court ruling, Massachusetts advocates on Friday unveiled a broad agenda to protect and expand reproductive services to accommodate patients from the Bay State and beyond.

The city is working to deal with mental health issues head on using the collective power of several organizations and its task force to reduce stigma and get those who need it help. 

City officials, public health advocates and people with first-hand experience struggling with their mental health said that work is ongoing to end the stigma around mental health at an event Tuesday afternoon outside City Hall. 

Heywood Healthcare and UMass Memorial Health have started the process of forming an affiliation that would bring Heywood under the UMass Memorial umbrella. The two systems, which currently collaborate on a number of programs, have signed a non-binding letter of intent that will allow Heywood Healthcare and UMass Memorial Health to explore affiliation options upon the completion of a review. 

That’s something Dr. Eric Alper, senior vice president, chief clinical informatics officer and chief quality officer at UMass Memorial Health, is keeping a close eye on. Currently, Worcester, Massachusetts-based UMass takes advantage of private health information exchanges, like Epic’s proprietary Care Everywhere platform.