You could also take the Pike to Riverside and take a long ride on the Green Line into North Station, then walk/shuttle. That minimizes your exposure to 128 traffic, and the worst of the Pike.
But the Green line is much less pleasant than the Red line, and much slower.
Tru dat.
Best option, IMHO is:
Drive to Grafton, Westbrough or Southbrough commuter rail station.
Train to South Station
Red line to Charles MGH (three very short stops)
Reverse to get home.
Notes:
If the commuter rail station has a ticket seller nearby you will pay a surcharge buying your ticket from the conductor. Cash or T app purchase only on the train.
They will absolutely sell you a ticket if there’s no seat left. You’re not guaranteed a seat. 
Parking - the only way to pay at most stations is Pay-by-phone: https://www.paybyphone.com/locations/mbta
Yeah, skip 495 to 2. Route 2 is nuts during rush hour, especially with the huge construction project at Crosby’s Corner. 128/95 is bumper to bumper as well. I agree with staying on the Pike as long as you can.
If the commuter rail seems easier, you could pick it up somewhere other than Worcester. Acton is probably too far north and a different line but it has a huge parking lot and other stations may as well.
Good luck!
Getting to Alewife from the west at that time of day is almost certainly going to be more painful than the commuter rail. I don’t take the red line that often so I double checked just to be sure, and yeah, Alewife is right where I thought it was. I’m not sure trading 11 miles of inbound pike traffic (that gets you to MGH!) for 13 miles of 128 and inbound rt. 2 traffic (that only gets you to Alewife, from the Weston tolls) is even that much of a win.
One of the commuter rail stops between Worcester and 495 would be my recommendation (as several people have already noted). Worcester isn’t that bad, all in all, and offers the guarantee of both parking and a seat on the train. Anything west of Framingham is eminently reasonable; I do the reverse commute out that way each day and I can tell you there are some (not all, but some) days when the inbound traffic is backed up all the way to the rt. 9 exit on the Pike.
Good luck, with both the trip and the hospital!
I ended up going to Grafton and taking the commuter to south Station. It was reasonably painless. The trip back was awful because of a heat caution causing us to slow down and some tit who kept playing with Siri all the damn way back.
Anyway, even though it felt like I made a fool of myself, the hiring guy said he has to wait for the official thumbs up but he expects to be calling me tomorrow with good news. If I do get accepted, I’ll be driving to Alewife since I’ll have to be there for 645am.
Thank you all for your help! You made the day so much easier.
Wait a minute, the T sucked mightily this past winter because they weren’t prepared and able to run during the snow. Now you’re telling us it slows down when it’s hot, too? I look forward to a day when trains are a mature technology and they work out these teething problems.
Still, good interview and successful transportation to and from, that sounds like a reasonably decent day.
For some reason, I assumed you had a medical appointment. Glad the interview went well.
You should be fine on the Pike in the morning. The afternoon rush hour, however, begins around 3:00 and even earlier on Fridays. Still, you’ll be on the early end unless your day is unusually long.
Hope you get good news.
I just thought you wonderful people might like to know that I got the job. 
The job is a 7 month Respiratory Care residency. Even if I don’t end up with a permanent job after this, and even though the pay is about half what I’d be making anywhere else, I am ecstatic to have this opportunity. The experience and knowledge I’ll gain is, by far, worth more than money (and sleep).
This was my first actual respiratory interview and my nerves were already going crazy. The added stress of travelling in a city I don’t know, on a form of transportation I don’t know, was making me a nervous wreck. So thank you all for removing about 50% of my interview stress!
Congrats! That’s great news.
Excellent.
So now you get to make this trip every day?