WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - The DCU Field Hospital in Worcester is opening its doors Sunday as health officials grow increasingly concerned about rising coronavirus rates.
The field hospital does not service walk-ins or emergency cases, but takes stable non-COVID-19 patients transferred from other hospitals.
“It’s really important to us that people continue to get their non-Covid care as well and our part of that is to make sure hospitals have a pop-off valve to send their patients who need Covid care so they can take care of sicker Covid patients and people with heart attacks, strokes, and other things people get sick with,” said DCU Field Hospital Medical director John Broach.
Hospital leaders say their challenge is dealing with health care workers’ fatigue after months of battling the virus.
“It is physically demanding being in PPE for your entire 12 hour shift,” said Associate Chief Nursing Officer Peter Lancette.
And hospital officials said they’re very concerned with coronavirus numbers in Massachusetts, predicting increased hospitalizations over the next several weeks.
‘We see the caseload rising right now, and I think we’ll see the hospitalizations rise a week to two weeks from now,” Broach said. We usually see that a couple of weeks after the case numbers start to spike. We start to see those people get sick and have to come to the hospital.”
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