UMass Memorial further tightens employee, visitor protocols
Photo | Grant Welker
UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus
UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester is taking increasing steps to help stop the spread of coronavirus, including requiring all workers on a hospital campus to wear a facemask and limiting hospital entry points.
Starting Tuesday morning, UMass Memorial was requiring all employees who work on a hospital campus or in a facility providing direct patient care to receive a face mask upon coming to work. Caregivers are to wear the mask at all times during their shift, according to a staff memo from President and CEO Eric Dickson on Monday.
That cautionary step, Dickson said, will reduce the risk of a caregiver who may not have symptoms but be infected from passing the virus to others, or from being infected by a patient who may be infected but not yet have symptoms.
[Related: Worcester County has first coronavirus death]
UMass Memorial is limiting hospital campus entry points at the Hahnemann, Memorial and University campuses. Starting Tuesday, hospital visitors will also be required to complete a screening questionnaire, have their temperature taken and to wear a mask.
Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Milford Regional Medical Center and others have also limited what entrances can be used.
UMass Memorial has been taking steps to make it easier for patients to keep in touch with family and friends now with bans in place against most visitors. At the end of the day Monday, 40 iPads were deployed at the Memorial Campus in Worcester. Last week, UMass Memorial received a shipment of 600 of the devices with 1,100 additional devices currently on order, the hospital said.
[Related: DCU Center to be used as 'surge' coronavirus care space]
The new universal masking procedure, as it's known, comes despite a shortage of N95 masks at UMass Memorial and elsewhere. UMass Memorial has evaluated how many masks it has and believes it has enough to support the new policy, Dickson said, though the type and brand of mask distributed to workers may change day-to-day.
"We understand that this is a rapidly changing situation, and we ask that we all be nimble and flexible to adapt our care guidelines to maximize safety for our caregivers and patients," he said.
Among other equipment shortages, UMass Memorial has also begun asking providers to conserve albuterol inhalers only for patients who've tested positive for coronavirus or those under investigation with a high likelihood of a positive test. Other inhalers called nebulizers should be used for all other patients, such as those with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the new requirement.
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