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UMass Memorial Health president and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson said COVID-19 was and still is unchartered territory. People weren't sure what to do, or what was coming ahead. "In emergency medicine, we train in disaster medicine," he said. "The first rule in disaster medicine is you have to put someone in charge and empower them to make decisions and I think that was lacking.”

Robin is a robot that lives in the pediatric unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. The hospital brought in Robin back in October as a way to provide moral support to pediatric patients — especially those in isolation.

As the leader of more than 17,000 caregivers at the largest healthcare provider and largest employer in Central Massachusetts, Dr. Eric Dickson has a wide-spreading domain. Still, the vast size of UMass Memorial Health has not make the system immune to the financial and staffing challenges impacting every aspect of health care.

As the public health emergency declaration in Massachusetts is set to end on May 11, UMass Memorial Health in Worcester is poised to update its masking policy, which will make masking optional in most settings throughout the healthcare system. Masks will continue to be required for healthcare providers in the emergency departments, the oncology clinics, bone marrow transplant unit, oncology infusion center, and with transplant patients, according to an email from UMass Memorial President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson sent to staff on Thursday.

Among the Massachusetts health systems announcing an end to mask requirements on May 12 are: Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest health care system; Boston Medical Center, Tufts Medicine; Beth Israel Lahey Health; and UMass Memorial Health, the largest system in central Massachusetts. “If not now, when? Then it’s forever,” said Dr. Shira Doron, Tufts’ chief infection control officer.

“At about 99 percent of the hospitals in the country, they come in for a bronchoscopy, they have a biopsy and then the diagnosis takes about a week or so,” said Mark Maxfield, MD, a thoracic surgeon at UMass Memorial Health. “Afterwards, they come back and have a meeting with the surgeon to talk about surgery and then they have to go schedule the surgery and wait another two weeks or three weeks or four weeks.”

WORCESTER, Mass. – Members of the UMass Memorial medical team were slimed Thursday as part of an event to mark Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.

Staff sat in the slime seat, giving patients in the children’s medical center a chance to smile and laugh as slime was poured all over them.

In Worcester, UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center is the only hospital-level provider between Boston and Springfield. But it’s located in a region of the state with the highest population growth, which means there are a lot of children under 18, Worcester Medical Director Dr. Michael Hirsh said in an interview.

The UMass Memorial Hospital Dermatology Department hosts free skin cancer screening and eye exams on Saturday, May 20, from 8 AM to noon.

Walk-ins are welcome at the Hahnemann Campus at 281 Lincolns St. in Worcester. Take elevator B to the Dermatology Clinic on the 4th Floor. Free parking is available.