COLUMBUS, Ohio - The union representing more than 4,000 nurses at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center accuses the hospital of endangering the health and safety of medical staff during the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a written complaint to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Tuesday, the President of the Ohio State University Nurses Organization says more than 85 health care workers at OSU have been infected with coronavirus.
Rick Lucas writes "many have suffered serious illnesses and lost work time and may have also exposed or infected their families."
The complaint says, "Registered Nurses, Patient Care Associates, Respiratory Therapists, and other health care professionals are in imminent danger of infection and serious illness associated with SARS CoV-2 across the entire Medical Center," but lists 15 units where the risk is especially high.
The complaint accuses Wexner Medical Center of failing to provide adequate protection and training for workers and offers more than a dozen examples.
The allegations include:
- Failure to provide a sufficient supply of N95 protective masks to frontline workers caring for suspected or positive COVID patients.
- Failure to provide sufficient eye protection to staff, forcing nurses to bring in their own goggles from home. As a result, the union says, around 10 employees contracted COVID and two dozen were exposed and required to quarantine.
- Hospital has refused to disclose the number of infected health care professionals
- Prior to April 5, the Wexner Medical Center actually removed disinfecting wipes from patient rooms, which made it more difficult to properly disinfect high-touch surfaces in each room.
- A unit on the fifth floor of the Ross Heart Hospital was temporarily closed in early April due to widespread COVID exposure and the need to quarantine staff.
- The Labor and Delivery unit had at least 27 staff exposed to COVID who were forced to quarantine. At least 12 staff on this unit became COVID positive. Nurses and other staff were not provided N95s and were forced to work in close proximity for extended periods of time.
- On or before April 1, 2020, the employer physically removed all N95 masks from James Comprehensive Cancer Hospital outpatient clinics despite patients still being seen in those clinics. On April 1st, 2020, the Code Blue policy (which requires proper PPE prior to responding) was reviewed with James Comprehensive Cancer Hospital senior Clinic management at the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center, and at that time management refused to provide N95s to the clinics for use even in emergencies.
Lucas says the step of filing a complaint is not something they do lightly.
"We see this as a life and death situation for our members. We just learned of a nurse that passed away that worked in a prison here in the state. We're seeing our friends and colleagues around the nation really dying a preventable death. And that is a real tragedy. We didn't sign up for this. We signed up to care for people with the understanding that the hospital provides a safe environment. And that's not the case right now."
He says the work, and the stress have taken a toll, even on his own family.
"It's exhaustion, it's worry. You know my kids have been at my parents for 3 weeks now. My wife is a respiratory therapist, so we are both on the front lines. We're trying to do everything we can to keep ourselves safe and our family safe, and we really need the hospital to do the same thing. We're making tremendous sacrifice, and we need them to do the right thing here."
The Wexner Medical Center sent 10TV the following statement:
"We have the utmost respect and admiration for our clinical staff who have been doing fantastic work during this pandemic. We’re working very hard to support them and keep all of our 30,000 employees and our patients safe.
We can’t respond to a complaint that we haven’t officially received from OSHA. We highly value our relationship with the union. In fact, members of our leadership team meet daily with union representatives to listen and address any concerns.
We have taken numerous steps to keep everyone safe and support our front line staff: Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have been following the evolving guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the appropriate isolation of COVID-19 patients and the requirements for personal protective equipment for our staff. We continue to work tirelessly to purchase PPE and maximize usage of those we have. We have postponed elective procedures to conserve PPE. We’ve partnered with Battelle to use an FDA-approved process to sterilize N-95 masks. We have developed in-house testing methods which significantly reduce the turnaround time for COVID-19 lab tests in an effort to identify patients as quickly as possible, which helps to preserve PPE if those tests come back negative. We strictly limited visitation to protect our staff and patients. We have daily temperature and symptom monitoring for all staff, patients and visitors entering our facilities. If a staff member does need to quarantine due to a COVID-19 exposure, we offer pay preservation leave that allows paid time off. This allows employees to retain their traditional sick or vacation time.
Nothing means more to us than the health and safety of our colleagues, our patients and their families."