Brian Gibbs. Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at UMass Memorial Health (Worcester, Mass.). Mr. Gibbs started his role at UMass Memorial Health in December 2020. He has previous experience in similar initiatives for academic institutions including Oregon Health and Science University, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health.

In Worcester, UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center is the only hospital-level provider between Boston and Springfield. But it’s located in a region of the state with the highest population growth, which means there are a lot of children under 18, Worcester Medical Director Dr. Michael Hirsh said in an interview.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Members of the UMass Memorial medical team were slimed Thursday as part of an event to mark Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.

Staff sat in the slime seat, giving patients in the children’s medical center a chance to smile and laugh as slime was poured all over them.

“At about 99 percent of the hospitals in the country, they come in for a bronchoscopy, they have a biopsy and then the diagnosis takes about a week or so,” said Mark Maxfield, MD, a thoracic surgeon at UMass Memorial Health. “Afterwards, they come back and have a meeting with the surgeon to talk about surgery and then they have to go schedule the surgery and wait another two weeks or three weeks or four weeks.”

As the public health emergency declaration in Massachusetts is set to end on May 11, UMass Memorial Health in Worcester is poised to update its masking policy, which will make masking optional in most settings throughout the healthcare system. Masks will continue to be required for healthcare providers in the emergency departments, the oncology clinics, bone marrow transplant unit, oncology infusion center, and with transplant patients, according to an email from UMass Memorial President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson sent to staff on Thursday.

As the leader of more than 17,000 caregivers at the largest healthcare provider and largest employer in Central Massachusetts, Dr. Eric Dickson has a wide-spreading domain. Still, the vast size of UMass Memorial Health has not make the system immune to the financial and staffing challenges impacting every aspect of health care.

COVID numbers at UMass Memorial have dropped significantly – 29 COVID patients are currently in UMass Memorial hospitals, including four in the intensive care unit as of last Wednesday, according to state public health data.

Robin is a robot that lives in the pediatric unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. The hospital brought in Robin back in October as a way to provide moral support to pediatric patients — especially those in isolation.

In Worcester, Saint Vincent Hospital is in the process of revising their masking policy to align with the May 11 lifting of the emergency orders. UMass Memorial Health is also anticipating they'll become mask optional once the orders end. UMass Memorial President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson said while some high risk departments, like chemotherapy, will continue to wear masks as they did before COVID-19, it's time for most workers, patients and visitors to have the option.