MA Department of Public Health has ordered MGB to address staff competency and emergency burn capacity – issues raised by MNA nurses at DPH hearing
BOSTON, Feb. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has issued a formal finding that the inpatient burn service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is “in fact necessary for preserving access and health status within the Hospital’s service area,” a decision that aligns with the concerns of Brigham burn unit nurses who are sending a letter to the MGB Board Chair and CEO urging them to stop the planned closure.
In its Essential Services Finding, the DPH requires Mass General Brigham (MGB) to submit a detailed plan within 15 calendar days explaining how access to inpatient burn services will be maintained. Included in the finding is a requirement that MGB address two central concerns raised by nurses during the January 20 public hearing:
- “Competency of Staff” – DPH cites testimony about “the loss of a specially trained staff that was built over time and cannot be quickly recreated once the service has been closed,” and requires MGB to explain “how the Hospital intends to maintain staff competency once the burn unit has closed.”
- “Burn Surge Capacity” – DPH requires MGB to address “the role Brigham and Women’s Hospital will play in such an emergency where the number of burn victims is great and MGH has reached capacity.”
On Tuesday, February 17, a strong majority of nurses who work in the combined ICU and step-down unit at BWH which includes burn care sent a letter to MGB Board Chair Scott Sperling and CEO Dr. Anne Klibanski urging them to reverse the closure decision.
“We write as nurses who care for burn patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital urging you to reverse the decision to eliminate burn care services at BWH,” the nurses wrote in the letter. “Collectively we have many decades of specialized nursing expertise and institutional knowledge that cannot be easily replaced or safely relocated.”
The nurses emphasized in the letter that burn care “is among the most complex forms of critical care,” requiring years of experience in advanced wound care, infection prevention, pain management, and long-term recovery. They warned that once this expertise is dismantled, “it cannot simply be rebuilt.”
The letter, like the testimony of nurses during the DPH hearing, also raises serious concerns about regional burn capacity, citing a recent incident in which a severely burned patient reportedly waited hours for admission while capacity was strained elsewhere. Nurses stressed that Massachusetts “does not have enough burn capacity to absorb the loss of the Brigham burn unit,” particularly during emergencies or mass-casualty events.
With DPH’s finding that the service is necessary, nurses are renewing their call for MGB to halt its consolidation plan and reinvest in the BWH burn unit to preserve patient safety and regional capacity. “We are proud of the care we provide and the expertise we have built over decades,” the nurses wrote in their letter. “This is lifesaving care. It belongs at the Brigham.”
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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 26,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
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SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association
