letter on poor conditions of hospital during covid 19
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group of healthcare workers at HCA Healthcare, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, sent a letter October 29 to the company's investors, alleging that the company has procured insufficient personal protective gear (PPE), has required employees to reuse single-use PPE, and has required some employees to keep working even after testing positive for COVID-19.
The letter to investors describes what it calls "the company's management failures in response to the COVID-19 crisis."
The authors, who include HCA employees from across the country, say that the company's PPE protocols may be putting lives at risk. HCA is still not consistently providing the necessary PPE to employees who care for COVID-19 patients or who work in hospital wards where those patients are treated, they contend. In some cases, they allege, HCA is forcing caregivers to use less-reliable masks or reuse single-use PPE for multiple shifts.
In August, some HCA employees in California, backed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), sued the company in Riverside County Superior Court, after two employees of the company's Riverside Community Hospital died from COVID-19. The complaint against HCA, its CEO Samuel Hazen, and the hospital charges the defendants with unfair and unlawful business practices, negligence, and public nuisance.
The letter cites some HCA workers who died of COVID-19 as examples of HCA's alleged negligence. At Riverside Hospital, the letter says, housekeeper Rosa Luna and lab assistant Sally Lara — both older people — died "after working without adequate PPE."
Registered nurse Celia Yap Banago, the letter notes, "died days before her retirement after 40 years at Kansas City's HCA Research Medical Center, and other colleagues became ill after treating COVID-19 positive patients without adequate PPE."
Karen Ballentyne, RN, a California nurse who is one of the coauthors, said in the letter, "Asking nurses who work the COVID floor to share gowns and recycle masks is unsafe. We deserve PPE and safe staffing to provide quality care to our patients and our communities."