Home Base joins COVID-19 Response with “Boston Hope” Medical Center Opening

Read full press release from Partners HealthCare here

On Friday, April 10, the first patients arrived at Boston Hope, a medical center recently constructed inside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

*The hospital was constructed inside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.*

The thousand-bed hospital will serve post-acute COVID-19 patients and homeless patients with COVID-19 who do not require hospitalization in an acute care facility. The effort, to be led largely by Partners HealthCare, involves partnerships among Boston Health Care for the Homeless, the office of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and the office of Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh.

Home Base’s Executive Director Brig. Gen. (USA ret.) Jack Hammond was asked by Governor Baker to lead the build-out and operations of the center, alongside Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, DNP, Mass General chief nurse emerita, who serves as co-medical and operations director. They discussed the challenges and opportunities ahead:

How will the hospital be staffed?
This is a highly collaborative effort in which we will draw from the Boston-area Partners HealthCare hospitals, the Massachusetts Medical Association, staffing agencies and the Department of Defense. Every Boston-area teaching hospital has sent resources to support this mission and schools of nursing, including the MGH Institute of Health Professions, have offered resources. Other health care workers interested to volunteer may visit www.partners.org/bostonhope.

What are the biggest challenges you anticipate in running this hospital?
The challenges we foresee are ensuring that we have all the proper resources to safely care for the homeless population; adequate supplies of PPE to safeguard the brave men and women working at the site and maintaining a robust staff that will allow us to sustain operations for an extended period.

What are the benefits this hospital is providing by serving both as a step-down unit and a place for homeless people with COVID-19?
It is extremely important that we are able to isolate and care for the unsheltered population to help flatten the curve, and to provide our area hospitals a relief valve to create more available space for those who require life-saving acute care.

If you are a health care provider interested in contributing and/or getting involved with this effort, please click here to learn more.