Mass General Brigham won’t require masks this winter
The Mass General Brigham health system does not plan to require masking for patients and visitors during the coming coldweather months, though the organization may mandate staff to wear masks in some circumstances if respiratory illnesses rise above certain levels.
The policies were released Tuesday by the state’s largest health system, developed in response to recommendations from the Department of Public Health, to mitigate the spread of not only COVID this winter, but influenza and other respiratory illnesses.
“With the expiration of the Public Health Emergency this past spring, health system and infection control leaders have been working to update our plans to help reduce the spread of respiratory illness in clinical settings during times of increases in respiratory virus illness,” said Dr. Erica Shenoy, chief of infection control for Mass General Brigham, in a news release. “The policy approach uses a variety of interventions, including targeted masking, to mitigate risk of spread of all respiratory viruses.”
The health system said it will use a phased approach if there is a rise in infections, tracked by the percentage of patients presenting to emergency departments or outpatient clinics who have symptoms of respiratory illness.
When more than 1.9 percent of patients coming to emergency rooms or outpatient facilities have symptoms for two consecutive weeks, the health system said it will implement a series of non-masking mitigation measures, including increased communication to employees, patients, and visitors about respiratory etiquette and vaccination, and active employee symptom attestation.
Depending on their symptoms, an employee may see an alert asking them to stay at home and inform their manager, the health system said.
When the level of respiratory virus illness exceeds 2.85 percent for two consecutive weeks, health care personnel will be required to use a face mask provided by the facility in direct interactions with patients in clinical care locations, such as in a patient room or when examining a patient on a stretcher.
However, patients and visitors will only be “strongly encouraged” to wear a facility-issued face mask in those situations.
The health system said it will move away from those approaches as respiratory cases decline below each of those levels.
By comparison, last December, local hospitals experienced respiratory infection levels as high as 7.3 percent, as COVID, the flu, and RSV were circulating.