Health Care

A face familiar to the Worcester healthcare community has been tasked with tackling the statewide nursing shortage.

MHA said the "well-documented patient 'throughput' problem is the result of many issues, from workforce shortages that have taken available beds offline, to the difficulty in transporting patients, to delays in getting the proper authorizations for the transfers."

After months of discussions, UMass Memorial Health in Worcester and Milford Regional Medical Center have signed a definitive agreement for corporate affiliation, allowing the struggling MetroWest hospital to receive support from Central Massachusetts’ largest healthcare system. 

The fiercely independent Milford hospital long resisted efforts to join with another hospital system, but a $15-million operating loss in fiscal 2023 helped force the board of trustees' hand.

ReWalk is expanding direct sales of its exoskeleton devices into Canada.

The Department of Public Health is working to implement a new classification system into its hospital licensing regulations, which would specify the types of facilities that are suited to treat pregnant patients depending on their risk levels.

More and more patients have turned to walk-in appointments at these clinics for issues such as colds or sprains, where they may have previously either gone to the emergency department or made an appointment with their doctor.

Framingham Union Hospital now has more unionized employees, as the healthcare facility’s nurses voted to join the Massachusetts Nurses Association union.

The headquarters of a Franklin manufacturer has been purchased by a Wakefield-based real estate investment company for $17 million.

Heywood Healthcare leaders have worked in the last several months to right-size its operations amid an ongoing bankruptcy, said co-CEO Rozanna Penney, but Monday marked a day of regeneration for the Gardner-based health system.