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Field Hospital to Re-Open at DCU Center in December

By Tom Marino | November 13, 2020
Last Updated: July 8, 2021

Governor Charlie Baker announced at a press conference on Friday, November 13, that a field hospital will again be established at the DCU Center in Worcester.

Baker said he expects the facility to be ready to serve patients during the first week of December.

The facility will host 240 beds and serve patients that require a lower level of care. The excess capacity enables hospitals to serve more patients that require a higher level of care.

The Massachusetts National Guard will support the establishment of the facility at the DCU Center, as it did in the fall. UMass Memorial Health Care will again be the clinical partner that operates the facility.

In two field hospitals established in the fall, at the DCU Center and Boston Hope, a field hospital housed inside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, treated some 700 patients.

Across the state, the medical community will convert acute care beds, enabling the expansion of ICU capacity by 400 beds.

Baker reported that 661 COVID-19 patients across the state are hospitalized, with 151 that require intensive care. On Labor Day, September 7, there were 178 COVID-19 hospitalizations in Massachusetts.

Hospitals in Massachusetts are operating at 73% capacity, currently. Capacity of ICU units is currently at 50%.

Image Credit: Terageorge, DCU Center – Worcester, Massachusetts USA, CC BY-SA 3.0

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