Photo credit: Erin Bloodgood
Healthcare workers assess incoming patients at Columbia St. Mary's on North Ave.
Everyone is scrambling in this time of crisis, but healthcare workers are the people on the front lines being pushed to the edge. As confirmed coronavirus cases increase in Wisconsin and around the country, hospitals and testing facilities are being overwhelmed and the systems in place are cracking under the pressure.
“It’s becoming clearer that we don’t have the infrastructure to handle what’s coming,” says Jaime Lucas, the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (WFNHP), a statewide union. Unions like WFNHP and healthcare workers around the country are demanding safer working conditions and more support, but so far, their employers have offered little help.
Photo credit: Erin Bloodgood
Emergency Dept. entrance at Columbia St. Mary's on North Ave.
The biggest problem in hospitals and laboratories at the moment is that there are not enough staff members to handle the influx of patients and testing needs. But this issue can’t be blamed solely on the evolving crisis. Ascension, a healthcare company owning a multitude of hospitals in Wisconsin, made large cuts to their staff in hospitals like Ascension St. Francis as recently as six months ago.
“There wasn’t enough staff before this pandemic. Now you’re in this crisis mode,” says Connie Smith, an OR Tech and president of the WFNHP Service and Tech Chapter in the hospital. She explained the layoffs were mostly clerical workers, which forced the nurses to pick up those extra tasks. “Those cuts are playing havoc right now” because the nurses are being distracted from their patients and having to train new people, making it impossible to keep up with the swiftly rising demand for care.
Without Protection
Overworked and under supported, many nurses are being asked to treat COVID-19 patients without proper protection. A nurse at Froedtert Hospital who requested to stay anonymous said on Thursday, “they are not providing us with N95 masks, only paper masks telling us that we are following CDC guidelines.” However, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states on their website, “Use of N95 or higher-level respirators are recommended for HCP (healthcare personnel) who have been medically cleared, trained, and fit-tested.”
The CDC website also posted an update saying, “Based on local and regional situational analysis of PPE (personal protective equipment) supplies, facemasks are an acceptable alternative when the supply chain of respirators cannot meet the demand,” but the CDC makes it clear, that “healthcare facilities are responsible for protecting their HCP from exposure to pathogens, including by providing appropriate PPE.” The guidelines are changing, but only because there are not enough supplies, putting our health care workers at greater risk of disease.
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The healthcare facilities in Wisconsin and around the country do not have the systems in place to protect their staff and have not taken the necessary precautions to prepare. This has become obvious when nurses at Ascension St. Francis Hospital are told to reuse N95 masks, according to Smith. Yet, standard practice is to replace these masks after exposure to a pathogen like COVID-19.
Nurses and techs charge that the poor planning also shows when hospital management departments take weeks to respond to crisis preparation plans. The WFNHP has a union chapter at Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories (WDL), a lab owned by Froedtert that analyzes blood, urine and other samples for patients. Charles de la Pena, the president of that chapter, requested a meeting with the management of WDL on March 6 to discuss a COVID-19 protection plan for their lab techs, before any cases occurred in Milwaukee. The management of the lab took two weeks to respond to the request. “WDL management worked on contingency planning to keep the lab staffed and open, but less about PPE and protocols for containment,” says Lucas.
Vital Role
These workers play a vital role during this time of crisis and if their basic health and safety needs are not being met, then we will not have a workforce to take care of the growing number of patients. The WFNHP sent out a proposed list of immediate solutions to Wisconsin health care employers that included instituting a policy of paid leave forgiveness and providing child care solutions. The WFNHP commented that Ascension and Advocate Aurora have been communicative but have taken no action yet.
Workers such as the nurse at Froedtert Hospital are treating extremely sick COVID-19 patients with only paper masks, then having to return home to their children, worrying about putting their families at risk. “I’m in tears thinking about all this. I feel like I can’t even be around my kids,” said the nurse. Nurses like this are scrambling for childcare options while working extremely long work weeks.
Additionally, sources at WFNHP say that many of their members are required to use their limited paid leave to stay home, even if they were exposed to a COVID-19 patient. This forces them to make the decision between risking the spread of infection by returning to work or exhausting their paid leave and potentially losing their jobs.
The WFNHP have published their list of immediate solutions that will help ease the burden on people on the front lines. The employers need to properly train their workers on how to handle COVID-19 situations and provide clear communications on their proposed crisis plans, which has yet to happen.
Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories and Froedtert Hospital were asked to comment but have not responded.
An Ascension Wisconsin Spokesperson sent the following comment:
Ascension Wisconsin has a number of protocols and policies in place to protect our associates, one of which is following CDC guidelines regarding personal protective equipment (PPE). The CDC has recently updated the PPE used for COVID-19, and Ascension is adhering strictly to those guidelines. Ascension Wisconsin is taking proactive steps with our distributor and suppliers to ensure access to supplies. We are arranging expedited shipments directly from manufacturers, assessing alternative products and taking advantage of our abilities as a national system to make intra-hospital inventory transfers when appropriate. We have also implemented conservation measures, in anticipation of further supply chain disruption over the coming months due to COVID-19.
Additionally, we are postponing surgeries, procedures and tests that are deemed non-urgent to ensure the availability of resources to meet emergent health needs during this pandemic.
We continually review staffing models, while respecting our collective bargaining agreements, to ensure efficiency of our resources, while providing the highest quality and most compassionate care. Out of respect for the privacy of our associates, we do not comment on personnel matters.
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