Hospitals

Staffing shortages in health care might be here to stay, and the industry needs to reimagine how it delivers care, Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday morning. “There’s this giant staffing problem running across the system, but that staffing problem is doing significant damage to the normal process by which the system works,” Baker said at a Massachusetts Association of...

An “unusual increase” in cases of a respiratory virus is ramping up pressure on the already-strained health care sector in Massachusetts, and Bay Staters should take steps including possible indoor masking to protect themselves, medical experts said Wednesday. Leaders of three statewide medical groups warned that physicians are dealing with a spike of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases, particularly in…

Wait times at hospitals’ emergency departments are nearing historic highs amid staffing shortages and a surge in RSV cases.

Maine’s two largest health care groups, MaineHealth and Northern Light Health, are sounding an alarm, saying that their pediatric beds are nearing or at capacity because of RSV or respiratory syncytial virus. The illness can have a severe impact on younger children and toddlers. On Friday doctors at Northern Light Health and MaineHealth said that the surge in cases of RSV...

Workforce shortages in behavioral health have left hundreds of patients in limbo, waiting in the emergency rooms of Massachusetts hospitals until they can receive treatment at behavioral health inpatient facilities. Children’s hospitals facing capacity challenges with a surge in respiratory illnesses are strained for space as dozens of young people seek mental health help in emergency rooms. “Children should...

In some cases, patients are waiting weeks and even months for appropriate care and may be boarding in emergency departments.

Hospitals across the Bay State are entering crisis mode as they struggle to fill full-time positions. Nineteen thousand full-time acute hospital positions are currently open throughout Massachusetts, according to an estimate by a new study from the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association. Providers that represent 70% of total acute care hospital employment took part in the survey. The highest vacancy…

Modeling used in a new study found that with the sea level rise anticipated this century, the Boston metro area has over a 90% increase in the number of hospital beds at risk in the event of a Category 2 storm.

Boston is one of the city’s at highest risk of flooding at its hospitals in the event of a major storm, based on sea level rise predictions in the next century, according to a new study from Harvard. According to the study, which focused on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, “sea level rise expected in this century due to...

One person is dead and a person of interest is in custody after a shooting at an Arkansas hospital Wednesday morning.

State approves Mass General Brigham’s plan to cut health care spending

Nurses at the largest hospital in Vermont are calling for a community-wide approach to ending violence in the workplace following what they described as a sharp rise in assaults inside the emergency department. “We are seeing a drastic increase in violence,” revealed Amanda Young, a nurse in the emergency department at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. Young...

Many American hospitals are looking abroad for health care workers, saying they’re facing a dire shortage of nurses amid the slogging pandemic

To see just how dramatically COVID case numbers have dropped from the peak of the omicron surge here in Massachusetts – all you had to do was stop by the walk-up COVID test site at Worcester’s Mercantile Center Wednesday, where there were no lines. It was just a few weeks ago that the lines snaked around the corner and down…

The seven-day average case count in Massachusetts has dropped more than 60% compared to two weeks ago, but it will still take time to get back to pre-omicron surge numbers.

“We cannot look past the strain on our health systems and substantial number of deaths,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.

Hospitals across the state are postponing thousands of surgeries as the pandemic stretches their resources. Sharon Desbecker was supposed to go in last week.

Hospitals across the state are postponing thousands of surgeries while they grapple with the COVID staffing crisis.

Citing a “critical staffing shortage” that has contributed to the loss of around 700 hospital beds since the start of 2021, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Friday issued a series of orders aimed at helping acute care hospitals preserve their capacity. The DPH is also advising people not to seek care at emergency rooms for “routine” needs, including…

A Rhode Island hospital is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak among patients after it asked staff who had tested positive, but were asymptomatic, to come in due to a staffing shortage. Massachusetts hospitals have been struggling with staffing shortages for months, while the latest omicron-driven surge has prompted “astronomical” case numbers. And new rules are in place allowing hospitals that…