The Tufts Medical Center stop on the Orange Line.Photo: Karyn Regal/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The upcoming MBTA Orange Line shutdown is forecast to hit the entire region hard — now, officials at Tufts Medical Center in Chinatown say their staff will be affected.
The hospital complex has its own stop on the Orange Line. Tufts Medical Center CEO Diana Richardson says 2,000 of her employees take public transit to work, including doctors and nurses.
"It's a pretty significant problem for us," she said.
Richardson says the hospital is hiring some small shuttle buses to take people from North Station to the hospital. As for the state's request to work from home — Richardson said all the administrative staff that can work from home is pretty much already there because of the pandemic. "It's not like there's a new workforce we can send remote," she said.
Outside of its employees, she says the hospital is worried that the shutdown could affect patients.
"We are very concerned with the number of individuals who postponed care during the pandemic, we do not want that to get any worse." She said patients should call in for help from the staff if they're feeling like they may miss appointments because of the shutdown.
That shutdown begins on Friday at 9:00 PM.
WBZ's Karyn Regal (@karynregal) reports:
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