Massachusetts hospitals 'reviewing' DPH guidance allowing health care workers with COVID to return sooner

Dec. 31—Most Massachusetts hospitals are "reviewing" new state guidance slashing in half the number of days vaccinated, asymptomatic health care workers who test positive for coronavirus are recommended to quarantine from 10 to five as systems face staffing shortages.

The Mass General Brigham infection control experts "are now carefully reviewing this guidance and determining the best implementation and testing approach across the system," the state's largest hospital network said in a statement.

"As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise in our community, we — like most employers — are experiencing the impact of these positive cases among our employees. Across our system, we are seeing increasingly large numbers of employees testing positive, which is greatly exacerbating existing staffing challenges," Brigham and Women's spokesman Mark Murphy said.

Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their guidance regarding isolation and quarantine for health care workers. The state Department of Public Health followed suit late Wednesday.

Hospitals are facing crippling staffing shortages amid a record surge in coronavirus cases that is infecting doctors and nurses and keeping them out of work by the dozens.

Staffing shortages are affecting industries across the board as the nation's economy attempts to rebound from coronavirus shutdowns. Earlier this month, officials said the state had lost about 500 medical/surgical and ICU hospital beds due to staffing as hospitals are seeing a high level of patients, mostly due to non-COVID-19 related reasons. But as infections have climbed throughout the holiday season, so too have coronavirus hospitalizations.

As of Thursday, 90% of medical/surgical beds and 86% of ICU beds were full — a trend that has endured throughout much of December, according to state health data.

The updated DPH guidance, which also allows asymptomatic and fully vaccinated health care workers to return to work without a negative test result — is "effective immediately," according to a statement.

Public health experts immediately pushed back, with Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina tweeting that the CDC's recommendations relied on by the state were "reckless."

Asked about expanding testing in an effort to curb the current surge, Gov. Charlie Baker said, "We have some of the same issues with staffing that almost everybody else in today's economy has."

Baker, in defending the state's testing efforts during a briefing in Cambridge on Thursday, noted Massachusetts is the only state to have bypassed the federal government and negotiated directly with rapid test manufacturers in an effort to make tests available.

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