With testing backlog, UMass Memorial had 90 patients awaiting coronavirus results
Photo | Grant Welker
UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus in Worcester
UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester had 90 patients at one time awaiting coronavirus test results last week because screening results were so backlogged, according to a town hall-style online meeting with employees.
In some cases, test results were taking a few days to return. With testing increased, that number fell to 44 by Friday, but the UMass system still had 11 patients who were found to have gotten the virus, according to those who led the Friday meeting: UMass Memorial Medical Center's chief nursing officer and incident commander for coronavirus reponse, Justin Precourt, Chief Medical Officer Andrew Karson and President Michael Gustafson.
One was being treated on an inpatient basis at Marlborough Hospital, while the others were outpatient.
UMass Memorial had 100 employees quarantined, Dr. Michael Hirsh, the medical director of the Worcester Division of Public Health and a pediatric surgeon at UMass Memorial, said Sunday.
UMass Memorial has been taking a series of steps to care for more patients and protect staff, including fitting more than 3,000 employees for protecting masks and limiting the number of caregivers who enter a patient who has been diagnosed or is being investigated for coronavirus. IV pumps are also being moved outside patient rooms using extension tubes to prevent hospital staff from having to enter a room as often to check alarms or for other access.
The number of medical professionals entering patient rooms is being limited, as are house cleaning schedules.
The hospital is working to see if it can move some patient beds to other areas to free up contiguous areas for coronavirus patients. A challenge remains in that scenario in finding enough staffing and equipment, Gustafson said.
"We have plans to be able to ramp that up," he said of moving patient beds within the hospital.
UMass Memorial has set up a screening tent for referred patients, with 14 bays, staffed 12 hours a day. Patient rooms at both the University and Memorial campuses in Worcester have also been converted to so-called negative pressure, which keeps potentially infected air from circulating outside the room.
Among other steps, all emergency department staff are required at all times to be wearing at least a surgical mask, a looser-fitting version than the so-called N95 mask, which is tighter fitting and more protective. The hospital is not yet screening employees for coronavirus.
UMass Memorial is working to put technology in place allowing patients to more easily communicate with friends and family because of a restriction barring any visitors in most cases.
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