PITTSFIELD â A surge of patients, including some suffering from COVID-19, flooded the Berkshire Medical Center emergency department on Thursday afternoon, putting a strain on hospital resources at a time when the facility was already facing staffing shortages.
In response, BMC went to âfull activationâ at about 3 p.m. on New Yearâs Eve, meaning clinical staff stayed past the end of their shifts to handle the overflow, according to hospital spokesperson Jennifer Vrabel.
There were between 40 and 50 patients either in treatment or waiting to be seen in the hospitalâs emergency department, Vrabel said, including both COVID-19-positive patients and other patients in need of care.
“Our next facility after that will be Mount Greylock on the 2nd of January, followed by Williamstown Commons on the 4th, and then we have North Adams and Hillcrest Commons on the 8th, she said.
At the county’s largest hospital – Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield – nurses feuded with management over mask policy, with RNs like Mark Brodeur insisting the company supply all frontline workers with the then-scarce N95 masks as potential COVID-19 exposures ran rampant through the staff.
“Since a patient could have been exposed and shedding the virus without any symptoms, at this point in order to reduce the spread it’s important to assume that every single patient you have contact with has the coronavirus in order just to flatten that curve and ensure that the spread is slowed down as much as possible so that all of our resources aren’t overwhelmed at one time,” he told WAMC.
With this daily feature, The Eagle runs down breaking local developments in the coronavirus crisis.
BY THE NUMBERS: One new COVID-19 death in Berkshire County brought the total to 132, with the confirmed case count up 54, to 2,787, the state Department of Public Health said.
The DPH said 58 new deaths were reported in Massachusetts over the period, pushing the statewide total to 11,958. Deaths including those listed as probably caused by COVID-19 are 12,218. Confirmed cases rose 3,659, to 346,423. According to data provided by Johns Hopkins University, at least 229,910 people in Massachusetts with COVID-19 have recovered.
NUMBER OF ACTIVE CASES: 78,215 statewide.
POSITIVITY RATE RISING: The DPH report shows an upward trend in positivity rates of molecular COVID-19 tests in Massachusetts.
David Kolis had chills, a high fever and a deep cough as he drove himself to the hospital this month.
A week into the 63-year-oldâs fight with COVID-19, his doctor called to tell him there was something that might help. Monoclonal antibodies therapy, a treatment that President Donald Trump received during his illness, finally was available for widespread emergency use. And Kolis was eligible.
âI was very sick,â Kolis said. âAny help I couldâve got was well-appreciated.â
The therapy would try to give his immune system an assist by mimicking the natural antibodies that he would produce over the course of the illness.
Ron Mariano, poised to take over as Massachusetts House Speaker, looks to focus on community hospitals, wind energy in 2021
Updated Dec 29, 2020;
Coming off negotiations for the state’s health care reform law in 2006, Rep. Ron Mariano explored the possibility of becoming House speaker. But before he could launch a campaign, a battle for speaker was already brewing between Robert DeLeo, then-House Ways and Means chair, and Majority Leader John Rogers.
The speaker at the time, Sal DiMasi, hadn’t even acknowledged he would step down and would stave off leaving until early 2009. Still, Mariano changed course and backed DeLeo as DiMasi’s successor.