"We couldn't get the hospital to test us or our patients until it was undeniable that the virus was spreading through through our facility," said Brenda Alexander, a respiratory therapist at Kindred Hospital Brea, where an outbreak left 40 percent of patients infected as well as 27 caregivers, including a nurse and a patient who ultimately died from COVID-19. "Testing shouldn't be a last resort. It should be a preventative measure at every hospital to protect the health of patients and caregivers."
The need for testing workers has grown more acute given that state and federal authorities have relaxed infection control regulations amid continued shortages of PPE, including N95 masks. Moreover, many workers are told to stay on the job and get tested through county health agencies, even though it can often take a week to get the results, while the turnaround time for most hospitals is less than 24 hours.
"When my coworker started showing symptoms of COVID-19, our hospital refused to test her," said Stephanie Hurley, a phlebotomist and union leader at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. "We had to work with a doctor to get her admitted into her own hospital, so she could have a test, which was positive."
"My coworker told management that the family members he lived with had tested positive for COVID-19, but was denied a test and ordered to continue working," said Joshua Jesus, a medical technician at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital in Orange County. "He ended up testing positive, and we became severely understaffed because six of my co-workers had to self-quarantine."
Fountain Valley is owned by Tenet Healthcare, a Fortune 500 corporation, that has reported a $2.2 billion cash reserve in addition to receiving approximately $500 million in federal stimulus funds. Providence St. Joseph Health, which owns Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and has also received $500 million in stimulus funds, is the third largest Catholic hospital chain in the country with $12 billion in cash reserves.
"We're putting our health on the line to care for people during a pandemic," Jesus added. "It shouldn't be too much to ask for our employer to give us the piece of mind of knowing whether we are infected and possibly putting our families and our coworkers at risk."
The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement representing 15,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawaii.
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