Networks in ‘all hands on deck’ mode
Convert facilities, reassign doctors
Massachusetts hospital networks bracing for a coronavirus surge in the next 10 days are adding critical care beds, moving around patients and supplies, transforming facilities into dedicated COVID-19 centers and reassigning doctors in an “all hands on deck” approach, hospital leaders told the Herald Sunday.
“It’s almost like playing chess to balance the care for our patients,” Richard Nesto, Beth Israel Lahey Health’s chief medical officer, said of the cross-hospital collaboration.
Three times a day, leaders for Beth Israel Lahey Health’s 11 hospital network evaluate the number of COVID-19 patients and supplies at each hospital.
“If one hospital is stressed for beds, we may move patients to another hospital,” Nesto said. “Three times a day, we’re making decisions whether we should move ventilators. We are very active on this.”
At UMass Memorial Health Care, they’ve been getting ready for the midApril wave by doubling their critical care capacity. Negative pressure rooms, which are helpful to keep the virus from spreading, at UMass Memorial Health Care have jumped from 30 to 180.
Doctors are also being reassigned and re-educated, said Andrew Karson, chief medical officer of UMass Memorial Health Care. Anesthesiologists are being credentialed to run ventilators in ICU rooms.
“We’re also augmenting our hospital floors with subspecialists and primary care doctors to have more teammates there to take care of patients during the surge,” Karson said. “It’s all hands on deck, for both COVID units and our routine units.
“It’s about making sure all of our doctors are put in the right place and are comfortable with the care they’re going to provide,” Karson said.
Last month, Steward Health Care designated Dorchester’s Carney Hospital as a “Dedicated Care Center” for COVID19-positive patients in need of inpatient care. Steward on Sunday announced it will transform Taunton’s Morton Hospital into a second dedicated care center.
Also, Steward’s Holy Family Hospital will consolidate ICU admissions by redeploying staff from its Haverhill campus to the Methuen campus ICU. More than 100 Massachusetts nurses from Steward facilities have volunteered to be temporarily reassigned to hospitals in communities with the greatest need.
New England Baptist Hospital, part of the Beth Israel Lahey Health network, specializes in orthopedic care but there are no elective procedures right now — and a lot of empty beds. As a result, New England Baptist Hospital has been repurposed into a non-COVID-19 hospital, and patients are being transferred there.
“The staff at New England Baptist were fixing hips and knees before. They’re now caring for patients with all kinds of medical problems,” Nesto said. “We have a lot of staff having to quickly learn and perform new functions to care for our patients.”