UMass to rezone Beaumont to address hospital bed shortage
New England Council member, UMass Memorial Health in Worcester, filed a rezoning petition for the former Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center as part of an effort to add acute care medical-surgical beds to the UMass Memorial Medical Center’s University campus, according to a Thursday announcement. Beaumont would add 71 hospital beds to the University campus. UMass Memorial Medical Center currently has 842 beds combined at its University and Memorial campuses, making it the largest hospital in Central Massachusetts.
By rezoning Beaumont to match UMass Memorial’s current in-patient designation, the hospital would be able to have more medical beds at Beaumont. The rezoning filing is the first step in the process of converting the space to allow medical-surgical beds. Approval from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is also required before the property can be used as an inpatient, acute-care facility, according to the release. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Central Mass. has experienced a shortage of hospital beds. This rezoning effort would allow UMass Memorial to address this major healthcare need in the region.
“The additional inpatient beds will help ease pressure and strain on stretched-thin emergency room staff and resources at all of our hospitals by providing access to a level of care that can only be provided at an inpatient facility,” said Dr. Eric Dickson, President, and CEO of UMass Memorial Health.
The New England Council would like to commend UMass Memorial Hospital for its effort to add more medical-surgical beds to better serve the community around them.
Read more from the Worcester Business Journal.