Modesto nurses charge that change in staffing ratios is ‘not safe’ for COVID patients
Nurses at two Kaiser Permanente hospitals in the Northern San Joaquin Valley are protesting a state executive decision to allow more flexible nurse-to-patient ratios as medical centers struggle with the coronavirus pandemic.
The hospital industry, along with state officials, said the more flexible ratios are necessary as crowded hospitals deal with a serious shortage of critical care nurses.
Members of the California Nurses Association said Wednesday the waivers are not safe for patients. More than 35 nurses held an informational picket outside the Kaiser Modesto Medical Center on Dale Road in Modesto.
“They are trying to give us more patients, which is definitely unsafe for those patients,” said Chelsea Dela Vega, a nurse at Kaiser’s hospital in Manteca.
Dela Vega said patients who are struggling with COVID-19 in intensive care units require close monitoring and expert care to give them a chance of pulling through.
The nurses criticized Kaiser Permanente for not spending resources to hire traveling nurses or pay overtime for staff to work extra time.
Dela Vega said hospitals in other states gripped by the pandemic are paying higher wages to hire travel nurses, who cross state lines to take temporary job assignments in hospitals.
The picketing nurses said the Kaiser Modesto center is stretched thin this week trying to care for 60 coronavirus patients in its hospital wing, with more COVID-infected people in the emergency department waiting for admission.
Dela Vega said all the beds at Kaiser’s Manteca hospital are full.
Dela Vega, a telemetry unit nurse in Manteca, said staff on regular hospital floors are taking care of COVID-19 patients that normally would be taken to intensive care. “We are forced to take them because there is no more room in the ICU,” she said.
“Some of the public are not aware of what is going on inside hospitals,” Dela Vega said. “Nurses are overworked. They are burned out. It is not safe for the patients.”
California Hospital Association releases statement
The California Hospital Association released a statement saying the temporary variance on state-mandated nurse-to-patient ratios is necessary for hospitals besieged by a wave of coronavirus patients. The current surge is three times larger than the COVID-19 outbreaks during the summer; at same time, there is a serious shortage of critical care nurses, the CHA said.
“Accusations being made by one nurses’ union are false — and worse, irresponsible — in the middle of the greatest health crisis in generations,” said Carmela Coyle, chief executive officer of the industry group.
Coyle disagreed with claims by the California Nurses Association that hospitals are using the pandemic to undermine California’s safe staffing standards.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Coyle said. “What nurses, doctors and state officials are all doing is our absolute best to save lives and care for every Californian in need. Now is the time for everyone to come together to care for this tsunami of COVID patients.”
The CHA statement noted that coronavirus cases in California have risen above 32,000 daily and almost 16,000 COVID patients are hospitalized.
In a formal statement, Kaiser Permanente said it has not applied to the state for a waiver to relax hospital staffing ratios. “We have been in a position that allows us, thus far, to meet state-mandated hospital staffing ratios without requesting waivers,” the statement said.
Kaiser said it has made more nursing staff available for COVID patients by postponing elective and non-urgent surgeries, paying overtime, and working with nurses and the union to assign employees to shifts and locations where they are most needed.
“We understand this is a challenging time as we balance the extraordinary responsibilities of caring for patients during the current surge,” Kaiser’s statement said.
CDPH considering waivers
The California Department of Public Health is considering waivers to allow a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1-to-3 in ICUs, where the sickest COVID patients are on ventilators. Under the state’s normal standards, an ICU nurse is responsible for two critically ill patients.
The expedited waivers for hospitals may also a require a single nurse to care for more patients in “stepdown” units and on regular hospital floors.
The hospital association stressed the staffing variances only apply to hospital units caring for COVID-19 patients.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 2:05 PM.
