Eighteen-year-old Joshua Lillie is on a weight loss journey that's exceeding his expectations. "I couldn't walk 100 feet without being out of breath. Now I can go miles and be fine," Lillie said. That's because for the last three years, the Leicester senior has been part of UMass Memorial Medical Center's Good Fit Teen Weight and Wellness Program. It is a multi-disciplinary program for pediatric patients that addresses the problem of obesity. 

Over the next several days, Fitzpatrick’s health declined. She couldn’t eat or drink and felt nauseated, and fluid accumulated in her legs and back. At the insistence of her partner, Stephanie LaPointe, Fitzpatrick went to UMass Memorial Medical Center — Memorial Campus.

Dawn DeLuca has been able to cope with her condition. She has continued to work as a registered nurse in the Critical Care Unit at UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, Leominster Campus, even as her cancer progressed from stage 2 to stage 4 in 2020, with metastatic tumors in her pelvis.

Babak Movahedi, chief of transplants at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Massachusetts, said he sees both sides of the argument. He said access to care unquestionably leads to unfairness in who gets saved. “I just don’t see how changing the allocation system would fix that, though,” he said. “I think that’s a much bigger problem and much broader discussion, which is really access to care in general.”

Dr. Richard Ellison, hospital epidemiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center, said a lot can change in three years. "We're very far advanced," Ellison said. "We don't have patients in the intensive care unit, we're not terrified about running out of equipment, or having enough ventilators." It was a much different situation three years ago, as described by then City Manager Ed Augustus during one of the city's COVID-19 briefings.

Matthew Edward Deren, M.D., from the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, and colleagues estimated the orthopedic surgeons contributing to the arthroplasty workforce including active orthopedic surgeons, residents, and adult reconstruction fellows using data on all total hip arthroplasties (THAs) and total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) identified in the National Inpatient Sample (2000 to 2018). The authors then projected the procedure-to-surgeon ratios for 2050.

“This is actually not a surprise to me what’s happening,” said Richard Ellison, MD, an infectious disease specialist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. “Pretty much the entire world is saying that Covid has gone away. This remains a very contagious virus.”

At UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, President Michael Gustafson, MD, said the system is increasing the number of employees on its financial counseling team to assist patients who may see a loss of coverage. "This is a substantial amount of work that needs to be done," he told Becker's. "We are staying current with all communications from MassHealth [Medicaid], Mass Hospital Association and CMS.

The testing site on Front Street in Worcester run by UMass Memorial Health is among those set to close on March 31. The decision is due to a drop in demand for COVID-19 testing, the state DPH said. UMass said it will continue to offer free testing at the Front Street site through March 30 for anyone ages 6 months or older. No appointment is required.