By HCA Healthcare and its Riverside Neighborhood Hospital are being sued by the Service Staff Worldwide Union-United Healthcare Employees West for allegedly “recklessly” facilitating the unfold of COVID-19 amongst its staff and the Riverside, California neighborhood.
“Defendants, by means of realizing and reckless acts and omissions, have didn’t take affordable and vital precautions to guard their staff, sufferers, guests, and the neighborhood from the dangerous results of COVID-19, thereby facilitating the unfold of the virus and placing the encircling neighborhood at an unnecessarily heightened danger of an infection,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday within the Superior Court docket of California, alleges RCH pressured staff to work with out satisfactory private protecting gear, together with masks, robes, hairnets, gloves and facial shields; required staff to work regardless of having COVID-19 signs; pressured staff to not take precautionary measures in opposition to COVID-19 publicity, comparable to sanitization, in the event that they hindered effectivity; ignored employee complaints about lack of PPE; had insufficient contact tracing, and pressured staff to disregard workplace-safety measures.
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The plaintiffs within the case embody three RCH staff who contracted COVID-19 and one particular person whose mom died after contracting the virus. Notably, every of the plaintiffs is a member of a racial minority group, making them statistically extra more likely to contract COVID-19, and extra more likely to endure severe signs, together with demise, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
They’re in search of financial compensation and a declaration from HCA that it dedicated a public nuisance and unfair enterprise practices for its alleged acts.
WHY THIS MATTERS
This case marks a serious lawsuit introduced in opposition to a nationwide hospital chain to carry it accountable for placing its staff prone to contracting COVID-19, in keeping with SEIU-UHW.
Frontline healthcare staff have been discovered to be at a considerably increased danger of COVID-19 an infection, particularly amongst those that had insufficient entry to PPE, in keeping with a medRxiv research.
“All of us as healthcare staff know we face increased dangers in a hospital atmosphere the place we work in shut proximity to sufferers affected by COVID-19, however this hospital and its guardian firm did not observe CDC tips and did not appear to care about our security or the security of our sufferers,” stated one of many plaintiffs, Gladys Reyes, who works as a lab assistant and phlebotomist at RCH and examined constructive for the virus in June.
The CDC has recorded over 139,000 COVID-19 instances and greater than 640 deaths amongst healthcare personnel.
In response to the lawsuit, RCH shared an announcement with Becker’s Hospital Evaluation saying it will “vigorously defend” itself from what it referred to as an try from the union to “acquire publicity.”
THE LARGER TREND
The lawsuit follows a strike of registered nurses at RCH earlier this summer season. The nurses issued a 10-day strike discover for employees shortages leading to fewer RNs caring for extra sufferers and inadequate PPE resulting in an elevated danger of COVID-19 an infection.
In the course of the second quarter of 2021, HCA reported greater than $1 billion in internet revenue and $822 million in federal help from the Coronavirus Support, Aid, and Financial Safety Act.
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