Aug. 19-Providence, the organization in charge of a significant number of health care providers in Humboldt County, including St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna, has a policy requiring employees to work if they test positive for the coronavirus, but only under certain conditions.
If a caregiver tests positive five days after their first positive test, they can return to work if they have been fever-free for 24 hours and have other symptoms that are resolving, though they are restricted to treating patients who are also testing positive, according to Steven Buck, executive director of communications at Providence. While the policy is within the guidelines issued by the California Department of Public Health, some staff members are frustrated with them.
"It's a terrible way to run a hospital, and I think it really speaks to the diligence that Providence is or isn't practicing, and we're seeing it in many, many aspects inside the hospital," Julie Minton, an organizer with the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents many caregivers across California including hundreds in Humboldt County.
Caregivers who are vaccinated and boosted, or who are vaccinated but not yet booster eligible, can return to work in less than 5 days from when they initially tested positive if they receive a negative antigen test and their symptoms have significantly improved. For unvaccinated caregivers, or vaccinated and booster-eligible caregivers, that number is extended to after five days from their initial positive test.
In a statement, Providence noted that its low staff numbers have contributed to the policy
"Our priority at Providence has been and will continue to be to take the precautions necessary to protect the health and safety of all who enter our hospitals while continuing to provide the high-quality care that members of our communities need," Buck said in an email.
"Our guidance is based on the staffing situation at our hospitals. Since our Humboldt County hospitals are in 'crisis staffing' (critical staffing shortage) at present, this is the guidance we are following for symptomatic and asymptomatic caregivers. In addition, we are maintaining highly protective masking guidelines at our hospitals. This includes requiring all employees and visitors to wear a hospital-issued N95 or Level 3 mask," Buck added.
Last week, caregivers gathered in front of St. Joseph Hospital to protest what they called a self-created staffing shortage at Providence facilities in Humboldt County.
Opinion is not universal among caregivers. Austin Allison, a surgical technician at St. Joseph Hospital, noted he was fine with the policies so long as they are in line with the science behind the spread of coronavirus and public health requirements.
"As long as it's peer-reviewed that it's okay that we can return to work and not get any other people sick, I don't see a huge problem," Allison said.
However, an anonymous caller to the Times-Standard who said they worked as a caregiver at a Providence facility in Humboldt County said the rules made them worried about coming to work, fearing possible spread of the coronavirus from caregivers to medically vulnerable members of the community.
Some people who become infected by the coronavirus can still test positive for up to three months, though that does not mean they are still contagious throughout that entire period, according to the CDC.
Minton added that the National Union of Healthcare Workers chapter in Humboldt County does not plan on doing anything about the policy, as they have chosen instead to focus on protesting staffing shortages and payroll errors, which resulted in caregivers receiving incorrectly tallied paychecks over the past few months. Minton expressed frustration with the policies, saying they constitute a bare-minimum requirement, rather than a gold standard.
"CDPH as a regulatory agency is setting a bottom line as far as what isn't acceptable, and that's not the expectation, that's not like, 'Oh, this is how you should run a hospital,' it's that you shouldn't run a hospital worse than these regulations. Instead, what we find is that Providence's business model is to run at the bare bones, on the edge of being in compliance," Minton said.
Jackson Guilfoil can be reached at 707-441-0506.
(c)2022 Times-Standard, Eureka, Calif. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.