On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health held a virtual hearing about UMass Memorial’s application to add 91 new inpatient beds: 72 at the “NIB” (New Inpatient Building, the old Beaumont nursing home building next to University Campus), and 19 at Memorial.
Leaders from UMass Memorial, legislators and Worcester city leaders, providers from inside and outside UMass Memorial, and community organizations testified about why the additional beds are needed:
Central Mass. is “under-bedded:” Both Western Mass and Eastern Mass have more beds per capita than Central Mass, and we are substantially below the national average.
As the state’s only academic medical center outside Boston, UMass Memorial Medical Center is the only provider of a wide range of highly specialized care in Central Mass. If there aren’t enough beds at UMass Memorial, patients have to go to Boston, which can be very difficult for them and their families.
The Medical Center’s Emergency Department (ED) is the second busiest in the state and has a high patient acuity level. Because there aren’t enough beds, admitted non-psychiatric ED patients wait an average of 17 hours as ED “boarders” before they get a bed. A typical day begins with 50-70 patients boarding in the ED.
From February 2021 through February 2022, the Medical Center had to decline approximately 43% of requests for patient transfer from community hospitals – 3500 patients declined total.
In her testimony, SHARE Organizer, Janet Wilder, described how difficult it is for SHARE staff to provide care in these circumstances: feeling bad for making patients wait, always juggling, always running – it’s exhausting!
The only speakers in the hearing who were against the bed expansion at UMass Memorial were from St. Vincent’s hospital.