A group of nurses delivered a letter to USC president Carol L. Folt on Wednesday, Jan. 27, asking the Keck Hospital of USC administration to host a virtual Town Hall to address safety concerns and answer questions about how the hospital is handling the pandemic.
The USC rally was part of a nationwide action held by National Nurses United on Wednesday in 19 states, urging hospitals and government officials to protect healthcare workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. The demonstrations, urging that hospital employers “put patients first,” were also staged in Marina Del Rey, Inglewood and Alhambra.
Keck Medical Center of USC officials responded by saying its teams were afforded excellent protection and its protocols were even more conservative than those recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly a year ago, the USC administration introduced a new attendance policy, discouraging nurses from staying home when sick during the global pandemic, according to the letter the nurses delivered to the USC president.
“Not only does the policy drastically cut our sick and kin-care days, but it also places an unnecessary threat to nurses that are showing COVID-19 like symptoms and who must stay home to safely quarantine and/or get tested,” the letter said. “In addition to potential discipline, this practice requires those of us that are affected to use our personal PTO and extended illness hours or go unpaid.”
In addition, the USC administration has eliminated donning and doffing pay for COVID nurses while they change into scrubs, terminated the dedicated COVID transport team, refused to pay premium pay to specialized COVID USC nurses and exposed patients and visitors to COVID-19 by allowing unnecessary visitation.
Joe Tylutki, an intensive care unit nurse at USC Keck, said allowing visitors during the pandemic means letting them “risk the lives of everybody in the hospital,” he said. “There’s only one reason that we can all think of why they would want to continue to allow visitors and that’s to improve their scores. At least on paper, patients are being happy.”
Keck Medical Center of USC said in a statement that the health system has numerous protocols in place to protect patients, staff and visitors from COVID-19, including:
- A strict no-visitor policy at the hospital, with the exception of certain end-of-life care;
- All caregivers, patients and essential visitors are screened daily for COVID-19 symptoms or possible exposure and are required to maintain masking, distancing and handwashing measures while in and around our facilities;
- All employees have access to ongoing and repeated COVID-19 testing at no cost to the employee;
- The medical center maintains ample personal protective equipment and employees do not need to reuse N95 masks; and
- Employees are provided with additional scrubs that can be laundered on-site.
Tylutki’s colleague nurse Kerri Dodgens said the hospital is pushing for a new contract that wouldn’t allow nurses to report potential violations to OSHA and other regulatory agencies.
“It’s being proposed that we would not be able to report directly to these agencies if we see violation happening in our hospital,” she said, “and that’s a big problem, especially with COVID-19.”
In recent months, USC has been hit hard by the pandemic. There have been over 1,000 positive COVID-19 USC workplace exposures and at least 100 healthcare workers exposed in the high-risk category, according to the letter. As of January 7, 793 healthcare workers at USC tested positive for coronavirus, the letter said.
