Amid an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations headed into the holidays, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration is ordering Massachusetts hospitals with limited bed capacity to cut back on non-urgent, scheduled procedures.
However, officials say the reason isn’t the recent increase in COVID-19 patients.
Rather, they say hospitals are being primarily strained by staffing shortages, patients who delayed care for other ailments, and longer hospital stays.
“The current strain on hospital capacity is due to longer than average hospital stays and significant workforce shortages, separate and apart from the challenges brought on by COVID,” Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
Still, Kevin Tabb, the president and CEO of Beth Israel Lahey Health, said that hospitals are “busier than ever” due to the combination of factors.
Under the Department of Public Health order issued Tuesday, a hospital or healthcare system that does not have a certain number of open beds must “reduce non-essential, non-urgent scheduled procedures,” beginning next Monday, Nov. 29.
According to DPH guidance, hospitals that have less than 15 percent of beds available will be subject to a required 30 percent reduction in non-essential procedures, compared to its average 2019 volume.
As of this week, 11.3 percent of the 8,910 hospital beds in Massachusetts — and 21 percent of intensive care unit beds — remain available.
DPH officials say the order applies to procedures that are scheduled in advance because it is not a medical emergency and where delay will not result in adverse outcomes to the patient’s health.
The order, which was developed with the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, does not affect urgent and essential care.
“While we recognize that delaying some prescheduled surgeries may present a significant hardship for patients, we believe it is a necessary step to assure that all of the Commonwealth’s hospitals can continue to meet the needs of patients requiring emergency care,” Eric Dickson, the chair of the MHA Board and president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, said in a statement.