Hospital does not enforce the visitor's policy that it has posted, and several visitors enter past the screeners and get into the cafeteria, waiting areas, and patient rooms. it is to be 1 visitor per person and it is well over this at times. RNs report up
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to 3 per visitor. Hospital just started fit testing in September for N95s. Nurses are given a color-coded dot to indicate their model of N95. If they don't have their model, they are given the most comparable model for their color-coded dot. They are not fit tested for the comparable models. The screeners are "stingy" with N95 masks at the entrance door. When nurses wear surgical masks and N95s, they are not worn as not as single use. Nurses are not wearing protection at least as protective as a N95 filtering face piece respirator when they are exposed to suspected or + COVID patients. Or, when exposed to patients who have not been screened for +COVID patients. ED and 4N, rooms 400-407(where covids are cohorted), have N95s on the units. The other units do not have them on the units, including the ICU, PAT Clinic, Pre-Op, Surgery, PACU, Rehab, 3N Med Tele, 3S CCU, 3E Neuro Ortho, SSU, Labor & Delivery, NICU. The RNs must ask a manager for N95s or leave units to get one. The Labor and Delivery RNs report being required to get N95s masks from the house supervisor, but it keeps changing places so it's confusing. They have no negative pressure room. Patients are only tested for covid if they have symptoms. 4N, rooms 400-407, covid cohort area, the trash and dirty linens from +covid rooms are dragged down the halls. Dirty food trays are carried from the +covid rooms and sometimes placed at the nurse's station before removing them. In Surgery area(Pre op, Surgery, PACU): They are not testing all patients, unless they are a high-risk procedure, but this does not make sense to the RNs because all are intubated and extubated. Testing makes it difficult for surgeons to ADD ON cases to the schedule , so they are not doing it. RNs bring it up to management and they say, "it will be looked at". 9/30 an email went out to the RNs saying all cases SCHEDULED after 9/27 would be tested prior to procedure, however; ADD ONs are not SCHEDULED. And the RNs report they ALREADY had cases scheduled out for 6 months with several doctors. This means these cases, because they were scheduled before 9/27, are not required to be tested. An RN gave an example of a surgery day recently, since 9/27, where 30 cases were scheduled, but only 4 were scheduled after 9/27, these were the only ones required to be tested by the hospital. House Supervisors(who pass thru all nursing units during their shifts) are not informed of what is an exposure or proper PPE: Oct 4th a Preop nurse was caring for a patient for several hours and the patients test came back + COVID. The RN had a level 3 surgical mask on and the patient had a level 1. The RN pushed the patient to the negative pressure room. A house supervisor was in the PACU as this occurred and as the RN returned to the Pre op area, she notified the super about this and what she had on. The super interrupted her and told her since she had a level 3(surgical mask)on she was OK. OSHA ETS requires protection at least as protective as an N95 filtering face piece respirator. The RN was not notified this was an exposure - she was with the patient well over 15 minutes in a surgical mask. Because the hospital did not consider this an exposure there was no contact tracing, none of the other RNs she works with were informed. This area has several RNs in common areas working together. 4N ONOGS unit multiple exposures: 7/29-8/2/21, patient admitted to 4N-ONOGS and on 8/2 tested + COVID, then was transferred to CDU. Resulted in, 9 RNs exposed, 3 PCTs and 1 Nurse Intern and 1 RN became positive who was training w/ another RN. 9/1, nurse worked as relief charge RN and tested positive on 9/7. 9/2 nurse tested positive on her shift and sent home. 9/5-9/6,
Source: Osha.gov | Receipt Date: 2021-10-08
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