Field Hospital At DCU Center Ready For Business When Need Arises

WORCESTER, MA ­— The DCU Center is ready to become the state’s first field hospital as healthcare professionals and city and state officials alike continue to cope with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. While the facility opened its doors on Thursday and is prepared to be fully staffed, the site may not be needed for some time, city officials announced on Wednesday.

As of now, both St. Vincent and UMass Memorial have the capacity to deal with the city’s number of confirmed coronavirus cases, which hit 440 on Wednesday. Worcester Director of Public Health Dr. Michael Hirsh said Wednesday’s media briefing that the DCU Center can offer a surge capacity of 250 beds but that the city’s two hospitals are working “very, very hard” but keeping up with caseload volume. The struggle, Hirsh said, comes in the area of a nationwide equipment shortage as the city braces for a peak of confirmed cases around April 19.

The city also has beds available at Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center as well as four homeless shelters around the city.

“Hopefully we won’t need to use (the DCU Center) right away, but it’s there if the need arises,” Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus said on Wednesday.

Last week, Gov. Charlie Baker announced the field hospital construction at the DCU Center would begin immediately and would provide bedding for patients who still require medical care. Augustus said last week that UMass will staff the facility and that site will include six pods that have room for 40 beds each and the site will also include 10 beds for resuscitation and intensive care.

UMass officials said last week that each pod of 40 patients would have two doctors, three or four residents, two to four nurses and five to eight patient care assistants. Augustus said last week that UMass Memorial had received more than 500 applications from medical professionals looking to help and should be fully staffed.

“It sounded like they had a very good response to their call for medical professionals, medical students etc.” Augustus said at a press briefing last week. “So they were working through that list and sounded very optimistic that they were going to have a sufficient number to meet their needs.”