UMass Memorial Health Care President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson has been named the new chair of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, the Boston hospital advocacy nonprofit announced Friday.

The DCU center, a convention center complex in Worcester, Massachusetts, is converted into a Covid-19 field hospital to take in non-emergency and an overflow of coronavirus patients. The facility has admitted 365 Covid patients in the past five weeks.

Leominster-based Montachusett Home Care Corporation (MHCC) is pleased to announce that the inaugural launch of the Cards for Caring initiative saw more than 700 holiday cards donated to older adults living in isolation during the holiday season.

This widely successful campaign was done in collaboration with Congresswoman Lori Trahan and Congressman Jim McGovern.

Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care, on how the DCU field hospital is filling up with Covid patients, and the status of Covid vaccinations (1:12:51)

UMass Memorial Health Care has posted a $15 million operating surplus for 2020, crediting federal funding and caregivers with reversing two straight years of operating losses.

“We are extremely grateful to our 14,000 caregivers who have spent the past 10 months inside our hospitals, community practices, and out in the community helping the people in central Massachusetts fight a global pandemic,” a statement from UMass Memorial Health Care President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson and Chief Financial Officer Sergio Melgar said Tuesday.

Healthcare workers are no strangers to skipping traditions with family to work a holiday. In 2020, it’s a different experience, especially for those working on COVID-19 floors in hospitals.

“It’s pretty tough in here today,” nurse Shannon Lora told WBZ over Zoom from the CCU at HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster.

“It’s a horrible day here actually. We have a lot of very sick patients. We have a couple of people dying. It has not been a very good day.”

Hospital beds in Massachusetts are filling up fast amid a surge in coronavirus cases, and if the number of cases continues to rise, they may soon be full.

On Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker said the state's health care system is under immense pressure, as the seven day average of COVID-19 hospitalizations has more than doubled within the last month.

The number of hospital beds that are currently available statewide is much lower than it was during the first COVID-19 surge in the late spring.

UMass Memorial Health Care, the largest employer in Central Massachusetts, plans to have all of its health providers vaccinated against coronavirus by mid-February, a period of roughly two months.

All of the system's caregivers are expected to have at least appointments in place for vaccinations by Jan. 11, according to a memo sent to employees Friday. Those who are providing care directly to COVID-19 patients are going first, followed by those with less contact with virus patients, and then other providers.

Nine months into the pandemic, doctors who have been treating COVID patients say the vaccine is their greatest source of hope.

Dr. Gayle Galletta has anticipated this moment for months. “Excitement would be an odd word, but relief,” Galletta said after she got the shot.

Relief that she’s getting a vaccine that will also protect people around her. Early on, the emergency medicine physician at UMass Memorial Hospitals in Worcester and Clinton worried constantly she’d bring the virus home to her family.