Did you hear about this one? Link: Staff No-Shows, Deaths Hit California Nursing Facilities
I heard about this yesterday. A nursing facility a few miles south of me was evacuated when the staff failed to show up for work. According to this news report nearly 3 dozen residents have tested positive for COVID-19. After many employees failed to show up for the second day in a row, all 83 patients had to be evacuated and sent to different facilities.
These workers were criticized by the county public health officer:
“Nationwide all of our health care workers are considered heroes, and they rightly are,” said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, the county’s public health officer. “But implicit in that heroism is that people stay at their post.”
Kaiser said it’s up to state regulators to determine if the workers are punished for abandoning patients.
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/california/riverside-nursing-facility-evacuated-after-staff-no-shows/2301888/
However, others defended the workers stating that their fear of going to work without adequate protective equipment was understandable. The article I linked above, however, does not mention this as the specific reason for the large number of no-shows by staff.
Another article I found had this to say:
Natalie Visnick, a spokeswoman for the American Health Care Association, a nonprofit group representing more than 14,000 nursing homes and other care facilities, said the Riverside issue “signals a larger, pressing issue.”
“Health care workers in long-term care are having to put their lives (and their family members who they return home to) on the line every day for their residents,” she said in an email. “Meanwhile, nursing homes and assisted living communities continue to desperately need the resources that will help them battle this virus, including personal protective equipment.”
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10884395-181/riverside-nursing-facility-evacuated-after?sba=AAS
This second article seems to imply that fear of catching COVID-19 due to insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) may have been what led to the large number of no-shows. Later the article quotes the director for the county’s Emergency Management Department:
Bruce Barton, director of the county’s Emergency Management Department, made an impassioned plea for volunteers to work at nursing facilities, promising those who sign up will get adequate safety equipment and malpractice coverage.
“We are in immediate need for help to care for our most vulnerable patients,” Barton said. “Please come join us.”
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10884395-181/riverside-nursing-facility-evacuated-after?sba=AAS
So let’s assume that the no-shows were due to lack of PPE. Do I blame these healthcare workers for refusing to show up? I have wrestled with this question ever since learning about what happened and I don’t claim to have an answer. I don’t think there is a “good” answer.
When I started this post I thought that by writing out my thoughts I would be able to process the information and possibly come to some sort of conclusion. But as I’ve typed away I don’t feel any closer to a neat and clean position on this all.
Many have compared this pandemic to a war.
Sometimes, in war, there are no neat and clean answers.
