MNA Calls for Directive Requiring Daily N95 Masks, Expanded COVID-19 Testing, Presumption of Work-Related Virus Exposure and Halting of All Service and Staff Reductions in April 21 Letter to Gov. Baker
CANTON, Mass., April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new letter to Gov. Charlie Baker, nurses and healthcare professionals on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association are calling for strong and immediate steps to be taken by state officials and healthcare facilities.
"COVID-19 is surging across Massachusetts and yet nurses and healthcare professionals on the front lines are still being denied the proper protection and support they need to save lives and slow the spread of this virus," said RN and MNA President Donna Kelly-Williams. "State officials and healthcare facilities must take immediate action to keep caregivers and their families safe."
-- The MNA is requesting Gov. Baker issue a directive such as the one
issued by Gov. Andrea Cuomo in New York that would require all
healthcare to provide all direct caregivers a new N95 mask at least once
a day. The Massachusetts directive would expand on the New York order by
requiring daily N95 masks at ALL healthcare facilities because MA is
experiencing high rates of infection in non-acute facilities as well.
-- Even as the MNA has consistently called for adherence to best practice
standards of one-time use N95 masks for healthcare workers caring for
any patients, healthcare facilities have forced nurses to re-use masks
for multiple shifts, even multiple weeks, and have refused to provide
N95 masks even to nurses who are caring for symptomatic patients
awaiting test results.
-- The MNA has also expressed concern about the unproven "decontamination"
procedures for masks. The use of any of these experimental methods must
involve the consent of the healthcare worker.
-- Healthcare facilities must publicly disclose their PPE stockpiles so the
state and caregivers can best make decisions about the supply chain.
-- Testing of caregivers must be ramped up. If testing is not available at
a facility, there should be remote healthcare worker-only testing sites
available that quickly and without hurdles test and report back results.
-- All healthcare workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the
beginning of this crisis must be presumed to have acquired the virus at
their healthcare facility. Employers who say their workers must have
been infected in the community ignore their own facility's failure to
provide proper PPE, adequately isolate infected patients, provide timely
testing and implement other critical measures.
-- Facility and service closures, and staff layoffs and cancellations must
be halted while we are in the midst of a pandemic and hospitals are
receiving more than $800 million in additional state and federal
funding. Asked about the furloughs of nurses at St. Vincent Hospital
during a press conference April 16, Gov. Baker said the state has
provided almost $1 billion to the health care industry to ensure
financial stability.
In its seventh letter to Gov. Charlie Baker, Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders and the Massachusetts Legislature, the MNA, representing more than 23,000 frontline nurses and healthcare professionals in 85 healthcare facilities and the vast majority of RNs in hospitals statewide, calls on state officials and healthcare employers to immediately apply the experience and expertise of nurses and healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The MNA previously sent letters on March 14, March 19, March 24, March 31, April 7, and April 14. The April 21 letter can be found at www.massnurses.org/COVID-19.
Highlighted Updates in April 21 Letter:
-- Daily N95 Mask Directive. Gov. Baker has instructed healthcare
facilities to distribute PPE rather than stockpile it for "the future,"
but we reiterate that not all facilities are following this directive as
too many frontline healthcare personnel are still reusing non-reusable
N95 masks. Therefore, the MNA is requesting Gov. Baker issue a directive
such as the one issued by Gov. Andrea Cuomo in New York that would
require all healthcare to provide all direct caregivers a new N95 mask
at least once a dayFrom the MNA April 21 letter:"In light of this
inconsistent distribution and usage of PPE across healthcare facilities,
we ask you to immediately issue a directive that when a direct care
giver in a healthcare facility asks for a new N95 mask they will receive
one at least once a day. This follows a similar directive issued last
week in New York, but also expands upon it to include all healthcare
facilities given the level of exposure of COVID-19 positive patients and
staff that Massachusetts is experiencing in non-acute healthcare
facility settings."
-- Consent for Unproven Decontamination. From the MNA April 21
letter:"Though we have seen various 'decontamination' methods touted as
mitigating the PPE shortage problem, we remain concerned with the
employment of these unproven methodologies. Any re-use of masks through
various mechanisms including, H202 and UV lighting are experimental and
as such, should require consent from the worker which is not being
obtained."
-- Disclose PPE Supply. From the MNA April 21 letter:"We also reiterate our
call for full transparency regarding the distribution of PPE. Every
hospital should be mandated to report its full stockpile of PPE, so
caregivers and the state have an accurate assessment of need as we
attempt to maximize allocation of resources from the supply chain."
-- Expand Healthcare Worker Testing. From the MNA April 21 letter:"It is
imperative that we prioritize the testing of healthcare personnel and
that we standardize the criteria for testing staff. If a patient is
positive, staff should be notified and tested. If staff becomes
symptomatic, even absent a fever, testing should occur. To accomplish
this, all healthcare workers should have access to on-site testing at
the healthcare facility where they work. Though there has been an
increase in testing sites across the state for the general public, if
all healthcare workers tried to utilize these sites it would clog up
these test sites. We propose that if testing on-site at the workplace
cannot be made available, there should be designated times at public
testing sites just for healthcare personnel where the individual could
just present with a healthcare facility ID, get tested without having to
preregister and receive results within fifteen minutes. Additionally,
testing of all patients and staff should be occurring at every inpatient
behavioral health and public health facility, nursing home, assisted
living facility, state hospital, group home and prison in order to stem
the spread of the virus within these facilities. We are alarmed at the
rise in cases in our state operated facilities, and the resistance to
authorize testing of all staff in these facilities and programs despite
requests to do so."
-- Presumption of Occupational Exposure. From the MNA April 21 letter:"We
continue to be baffled by the insistence on the part of multiple
healthcare facilities that workers who test positive for COVID-19
acquired the virus in the community rather than at work. This default
assumption follows weeks of concerns regarding the co-mingling of
patients, failure to triage and segregate patients, lack of appropriate
PPE, failure to provide timely testing to healthcare workers and a delay
in providing onsite facility parking to employees, forcing healthcare
workers to cram into crowded shuttle buses to get to their work. We
again call for immediate action to presume occupational acquisition of
COVID-19 for all workers in healthcare facilities who become positive
and who have tested positive since the beginning of the crisis."
-- Halt on all service, staff cutbacks. No healthcare facility that
receives additional state or federal funding to help them during the
COVID-19 pandemic should layoff or cancel staff or close facilities or
services. Gov. Baker announced a plan on April 7 to send an additional
$800 million to healthcare providers. Congress has also approved $100
billion in funding for hospitals in response to the pandemic.Asked about
the furloughs of nurses at St. Vincent Hospital during a press
conference April 16, Gov. Baker said the state has provided almost $1
billion to the health care industry to ensure financial stability.From
the MNA April 21 letter:"We remain outraged that amidst a pandemic where
we have heard for weeks about the need to increase capacity and avoid
overcrowding emergency departments, hospitals are not only proceeding
with planned closures but eliminating additional beds and units. We
reiterate our call for the state to direct healthcare facilities to halt
all planned bed, unit and facility closures for the duration of this
crisis. This includes the absurd decision by Steward Healthcare to close
ICU beds at Nashoba Valley Medical Center and Holy Family Hospital in
Haverhill, the closure of mental health beds at Trinity Health-owned
Providence Behavioral Health Hospital, the closure of Maternal Child
Health Unit at Falmouth Hospital, the Somerville Hospital Emergency
Department set to close on April 30, and the closure of the mental
health unit at Heywood Hospital." ..."Instead of retraining and
utilizing staff to respond to the COVID-19 surge, hospitals are
cancelling shifts, furloughing staff or laying them off all the while
collecting additional money from the state and federal government which
was meant to make up for the reduced, non-COVID-19 volume. There is no
justification for staff reductions in light of this funding and the
crisis at hand. We remain concerned that some hospitals are using this
crisis as an excuse to shed staffing costs and improve the hospital's
bottom line. The latest and most shocking example is for-profit,
Tenet-owned St. Vincent Hospital, which is reducing staff on a daily
basis, and has announced plans to implement mandatory furloughs at the
height of the surge. And this is happening just steps from where the
state has opened a field hospital directly across the street at the DCU
center. This decision by Tenet is part of a strategy they announced on
April 2, to utilize furloughs and nearly $2 billion from the CARES Act
stimulus package to 'maximize our cash position.'"
Read the full April 21, 2020 MNA letter to Gov. Baker and more information at www.massnurses.org/COVID-19.
MassNurses.org ? Facebook.com/MassNurses ? Twitter.com/MassNurses ? Instagram.com/MassNurses
Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 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
