Amid surging COVID-19 infections, overflowing hospitals, and exhausted healthcare workers, Massachusetts hospital leaders are hanging on a glimmer of hope: some treatments, vaccines, and hard-won knowledge from the earlier outbreaks have meant fewer severely ill COVID patients.

And those who do need intensive care generally are recovering more quickly, doctors say.

Hospital and health system CFOs have navigated many changes and challenges in the industry in 2021, including staffing shortages and rising inflation.

This year, dozens of finance leaders from hospitals and health systems across the U.S. shared their perspectives on a variety of topics with Becker's Hospital Review via podcasts and interviews. Below are quotes from 11 of those executives, discussing everything from the best piece of advice for their peers to their most pressing concern.

When Eleni Nicolau became sick with COVID after Thanksgiving, a breakthrough infection that hit the 83-year-old hard, she found herself alone in a hospital room, separated from her family and struggling to breathe.

Then doctors gave her a new option: Did she want to finish her hospitalization at home?

DOUGLAS BROWN, president of UMass Memorial Community Hospitals, put it bluntly: “We’re going through the worst staffing crisis in our history.” 

Yet, UMass fired more than 200 employees earlier this month, many of them working in clinical care. The reason: those employees did not comply with the health system’s mandate to get vaccinated against COVID-19. 

As Americans gather to toast the end of another particularly difficult year, many loved ones will be notably missing from holiday celebrations, a glaring reminder of the tragic realities of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, the United States reached yet another staggering milestone, with 800,000 Americans now confirmed lost to the coronavirus, according to newly updated data from Johns Hopkins University.

Between 25 percent to 43 percent of fully vaccinated patients at major Massachusetts hospitals tested positive for COVID-19 in the week ending Dec. 10, WBUR reports. 

WORCESTER (CBS) – Inside a tiny trailer outside UMass Memorial hospital, COVID-19 patients are being treated with monoclonal antibodies. “This is hands down the most effective anti-viral treatment we have against COVID,” explained Dr. Sandeep Jubbal. So far, 2,500 patients have received the infusion here and according to Dr. Jubbal, most start to feel better within hours. “I think given the efficacy, it should be given out like water to everybody,” he said.

The 20th annual Goods for Guns Buyback program, which aims to reduce unsafe firearms in the community, collected 116 firearms from its nine collection sites on Saturday.

WORCESTER, Mass. — Police departments across central Massachusetts handed out gift cards in exchange for guns on Saturday as part of UMass Memorial Health's annual "Goods for Guns" buyback program. 

Participants received gift cards ranging in value from $25 to $75, depending on the type of guns they handed in.