GREENFIELD — Baystate Franklin Medical Center President Ron Bryant says it has been a “long year” and many of his staff are exhausted, but no one plans to let up until the COVID-19 pandemic ends or as many people as possible are vaccinated.
Like hospital administrators across the county whose staff admitted their first COVID-19 patient a little more than a year ago, Bryant said when the pandemic first hit in March 2020, everything was uncertain and information was fluid from day to day, sometimes hour to hour. But procedures are more routine now, and while the local hospital is confident in the way it responded to the pandemic, he said the staff will never let their guard down and become “comfortable” with it, especially since there are now variants.
Baystate Franklin has worked and collaborated with many in the community, including the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG), state legislators, Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, public health officials and others, and will continue to do so, he said.
“We have interacted with our community through this,” Bryant said. “We’ve supported others and they’ve supported Baystate Franklin.
“I’m proud of the tremendous job everyone at the hospital has done, from doctors, nurses and other medical staff to nutritionists, food service staff and so many more,” he continued. “We’ve settled into our current ‘new normal,’ and I’m sure that will evolve over time.”
Bryant said the local hospital, which employs a little more than 700 people and has 89 beds, adapted quickly by asking its employees — especially those working in areas that were shut down initially — to take on other roles for the hospital.
“Everyone was so willing,” he said. “Everyone just wanted to make sure people were safe.”
Some surgical nurses, for instance, were redeployed to the Emergency Department, while some Radiology Department staff became screeners, checking other staff members or patients who came into the hospital for COVID-19 symptoms.
“We didn’t allow visitors at all for some time,” he said. “Now we’re welcoming them back on a limited basis. … It’s been difficult for the families of our patients, so we’ve done what we could to make them more comfortable, like providing televisits with their loved ones.”
Bryant said he’s happy Baystate Franklin entered the COVID-19 vaccination stage a few weeks ago — it expects to administer about 900 second doses a week. As of last week, Baystate Franklin had administered more than 2,687 shots. More than 1,823 people have received their first shot, while more than 867 are fully vaccinated. Seventy-three percent of hospital employees are vaccinated.
“We’re doing our best to vaccinate as many people as possible,” he said.
According to data from the state Department of Public Health, last updated on April 1, about 35 percent of the county’s residents have received the first dose of the vaccine, while about 19 percent have received both. That not only includes those vaccinated at the hospital, but at Greenfield’s municipally run clinic, FRCOG’s clinics, doctor’s offices, health care centers and places like CVS and Big Y.
When Baystate Franklin began testing for COVID-19, it was administering about 650 tests a week, Bryant said. That number has dropped to about 250 a week as people have gotten vaccinated. A total of 19,600 tests were done by the hospital between April 2020 and March 2021.
Over the past year, the local hospital treated 151 people for the virus and 12 died, while 63 were discharged and sent home, and 76 were discharged to another facility, like a nursing home, to recuperate. During that same time, 92 COVID-19 patients were never admitted but sent home from the Emergency Department.
Bryant said he participates in monthly phone calls with state legislators to discuss COVID-19-related topics.
“We want to provide and receive as much information as possible,” he said.
The hospital has learned that telehealth is here to stay.
“We knew it was part of our future, but the pandemic accelerated its use,” he said.
Bryant also sees a future where collaborations get “even tighter” and more common with organizations, public health departments, nursing homes, municipalities, health partners and more.
“We’ve learned, through the pandemic, what works and what doesn’t, and our plans for the future will consider those things,” he said. “We know the best practices and have so much more knowledge than we did a year ago.
“The one big thing I saw was the community come together — fire, police, leaders, legislators, the hospital, organizations, everyone — and it was amazing,” Bryant continued. “Baystate Franklin is in the business of taking care of people, so I saw staff rise to the occasion, rallying to do what needed to be done without hesitation and they’re still doing it.”
Fundraising has also been “surprisingly good” this past year, he added, saying there was an outpouring of supplies donated to the hospital early on, for example.
“We have tremendous gratitude to our community for its generous support,” he said. “We couldn’t ask for more from our employees and the entire community. There are just no words.”
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.