401 15th Avenue Southeast,
Puyallup,
98372
Washington,
United States
Pulse Cardiac Care Inpatient Unit (a.k.a. CVICU, a.k.a. Cardiac ICU) - Spread out amongst 3 locations within Good Samaritan Hospital. Staff members work throughout all three areas: 1.) 2nd Floor, Meadow Pavilion 2.) 2nd Floor, Forest Pavilion 3.) 4th Floor, Forest Pavilion Staff members of Multicare have been exposed to at least two patients who tested positive for COVID-19. Patient #1: Admitted 11/9/2020, not initially tested for COVID-19, then tested positive on 11/19/2020. Patient #2: Admitted 11/29/2020, initially testing negative but then tested positive on 12/2/2020. Per the Tacoma Pierce County Health District (TPCHD) on Tuesday, 12/8/2020, 9 staff members associated with this unit have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two weeks. TPCHD stated that they believed that approximately 150 staff members were contacted and have been tested twice, with a third round happening now. Based on interviews with staff members, it is highly unlikely that more than half of the staff were tested once, let alone multiple times. Using a rubric, management deemed that most staff members were low risk and did not need to be tested. No contact tracing appears to have happened with staff members who may have been exposed to COVID-19 by the nine staff members who have tested positive. Given that break rooms, huddle rooms, medication rooms, and nursing stations do not allow for guaranteed social distancing and allow for staff members to take their masks off for eating and drinking, contact tracing should have been performed following every positive staff test.
Source: Osha.gov | Receipt Date: 2020-12-11
