As the number of new COVID-19 cases in western Massachusetts is beginning to flatten or decline, some hospitals say they're starting to think about opening to non-urgent services.
When Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton stopped elective surgeries in March, they were expecting a high surge of COVID-19 cases, according to chief medical officer Estevan Garcia.
But Garcia said the caseload was lower than expected — in part, he believes, because so many community members have stayed home and practiced social distancing. And that's allowed the hospital to "start conversations" about non-urgent procedures.
"Those procedures could have been elective for folks then, but they're probably becoming really important now," Garcia said. "And so we have to be able to figure out how to do that so we can get people back in here."
But he said that's not likely to happen until the summer. It will depend on new cases continuing to go down and on wider testing, including of health care workers who may have COVID-19 without symptoms.
"We need to be really cautious over the next few weeks to a few months. And I think that that if we do that, then we can start some of the ways to approach some normalcy around health care," Garcia said. "In the meantime, if somebody is having chest pain, if somebody is having stroke symptoms, they shouldn't be afraid to come into the hospital. We will keep them safe and get them good care."
Other hospitals in the region are also looking ahead to expanding their operations beyond COVID-19 cases or urgent procedures — though not imminently.
"We've been communicating the situation here in western Mass. to the folks on Beacon Hill to let them know that things are settling down here a little sooner than they are in the eastern part of the state," said Baystate Health CEO Mark Keroack.
