Which Stanislaus County workplaces have reported COVID deaths to California?
While Stanislaus County continues to withhold data on COVID-19 outbreaks at businesses, records show Modesto-area employers have reported few worker hospitalizations or deaths to the state agency in charge of enforcing workplace safety standards.
Stanislaus County employers reported only 66 worker hospitalizations or deaths related to COVID-19 to California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, from March 2020 through late October 2021, according to public records.
The Modesto Bee obtained Cal/OSHA data on the 66 notifications through Oct. 29 via a public records request. At that point last month, the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency reported 1,350 COVID-19 deaths and roughly 4,000 hospitalizations.
Cal/OSHA requires employers to self-report employee hospitalizations and deaths connected to work, but reporting a serious illness does not mean an employer admits responsibility. Although the agency fined a Stanislaus County business $5,000 for reporting a COVID-19 hospitalization about a week late, the number of cases employers never reported is unknown. An outside source can report a case, however, and the records show sources sometimes reported hospitalizations or deaths to Cal/OSHA weeks before the employer.
Employees and anonymous sources can also file complaints of COVID-19 violations in general, a Cal/OSHA spokesperson previously told The Bee. Attorneys, union representatives, news organizations and safety professionals can likewise submit referrals, potentially prompting an inspection.
Modesto-area employers that reported the most worker deaths and hospitalizations to Cal/OSHA include Doctors Medical Center, Memorial Medical Center and Stanislaus County itself. Doctors gave 13 such notifications through January 2021 and Memorial made seven reports through December 2020, the data shows. The county reported six COVID-19 deaths or hospitalizations through March 2021, including for workers in the health and community services agencies.
Spokespeople for each of the three employers said they comply with Cal/OSHA’s reporting rules and are committed to employee and community safety. Doctors and Memorial staff also accept patients from rural areas who cannot access care near their homes, spokespeople said.
Workers following safety protocols and properly using personal protective equipment prevents COVID-19 exposure in the hospital, said Krista Deans, a spokeswoman for for Doctors Medical Center. But with high case rates in the community over time, Deans said staff getting exposed to the coronavirus outside the workplace is possible. Roughly 3,000 employees work at Doctors, making it one of the county’s largest healthcare employers, Deans added.
“With very few exceptions, Cal/OSHA requires reporting of all staff hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 if the employee worked with or around patients with COVID, regardless of PPE use, safety, or other infection prevention protocols,” Deans said in an email. “We take reporting very seriously and reported any cases that appeared to be related to COVID-19 out of an abundance of caution given the Cal/OSHA standard.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Deans said the hospital has provided appropriate personal protective equipment to keep staff and patients safe. Yet union nurses working at Doctors held a protest calling for proper protective equipment in August 2020. At the time, The Bee reported the hospital’s parent company issued a statement saying it was disappointed in the National Nurses United picket.
Hospital urges COVID-19 vaccinations
A spokesperson for Sutter Health, the network Memorial Medical Center belongs to, also said Sutter invested in personal protective equipment and training for its employees from the start of the pandemic. Safety practices Sutter has added since then include testing, vaccine and exposure management protocols, a spokesperson said.
Sutter began offering its healthcare workers COVID-19 vaccinations in December 2020 and continued employee clinics in 2021, a spokesperson said.
“We also adopted a policy requiring vaccination, and now the vast majority of our caregivers are vaccinated against COVID-19,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We encourage all workers, patients and community members who aren’t yet vaccinated to follow their lead in supporting the safety of our shared communities.”
Sutter reported worker hospitalizations to Cal/OSHA out of an abundance of caution, the spokesperson added, because determining whether they got COVID-19 from work or the community can be difficult. But Memorial has not reported any worker hospitalizations or deaths to the agency since late December 2020, around when coronavirus vaccines became available for hospital staff.
The Cal/OSHA data, while limited, shows Stanislaus County employers reported fewer COVID-19 deaths or hospitalizations per month after vaccine eligibility expanded to all California adults. Employers reported 55 such cases from March 2020 to March 2021 versus 11 cases from this April to October.
Of the 66 worker COVID-19 deaths or hospitalizations reported, health care employers accounted for 39.4% of the notifications. Agricultural employers, including dairy, nut and poultry companies, made up 21.2% of the reports. Government employers accounted for 16.7% with Stanislaus County reporting six of the 11 cases.
Stanislaus County withholds outbreak data
Stanislaus County follows all of Cal/OSHA’s workplace safety mandates, including reporting employee hospitalizations and deaths, county spokeswoman Amy Collier Carroll said in an email. The county declined to comment on the six notifications, Collier Carroll said, because it does not comment on another government agency’s data or reporting. Yet county officials have repeatedly commented on state COVID-19 data, including when opposing restrictions on indoor businesses.
The county employs roughly 4,700 people, Collier Carroll added, and takes the health of its employees seriously.
“County employees were deemed essential workers supporting the front lines of our community response to COVID-19 and are to be commended for their hard work and diligence in continuing to support the enormous needs in our community,” Collier Carroll said in an email.
Meanwhile, the county on Wednesday maintained its decision to withhold data on COVID-19 outbreaks at businesses. The Bee filed a public records request in November 2020 for information on workplace outbreaks the Health Services Agency has tracked. The county denied the request, with County Counsel Thomas Boze writing the agency believed disclosing the names of outbreaks will deter the public from reporting future outbreaks.
The Modesto Bee Editorial Board published several editorials demanding the county release outbreak data like neighboring Merced County does to limit the spread of the coronavirus and keep people informed. The Bee’s attorney Karl Olson also wrote a letter to the county, urging it to release the data because of public interest. The county continued to deny the records.
A year later, Stanislaus County cites the same justifications for withholding the information now, Collier Carroll said. Public data on COVID-19 in Stanislaus County workplaces, including outbreak information and deaths employers did not self-report to Cal/OSHA, remains limited.
This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
