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Go to AnaheimPress.com for Anaheim Specific News THURSDAY, JANUARY 7 - JANUARY 13, 2021
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VOL. 7, NO. 1
METHODIST HOSPITAL FACES ‘SEVERE SHORTAGE OF AVAILABLE NURSES’ Terry MILLER tmiller@beaconmedianews.com
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n Saturday, socially distanced union representatives and exhausted nurses protested the patient-to-staffing ratio during the pandemic at Methodist Hospital of Southern California. Registered nurses held the silent event to oppose the hospital’s use of a state waiver to circumvent nurseto-patient safe staffing standards. In December, the state allowed hospitals to adjust nurse-to-patient ratios normally set by California law. Under the altered ratios, hospitals “can require ICU nurses to care for three patients instead of two. Emergency room and telemetry nurses may now be asked to care for six patients
instead of four. Medicalsurgical nurses are looking after seven patients instead of five,” reports NPR. “Under ‘expedited waivers,’ hospitals can increase the workload of already overburdened nurses,” said California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. “By the mere submission of a form, hospitals can require nurses in intensive care units and throughout the hospital setting to unsafely care for more patients at one time.” Nurses are urging Methodist Hospital to staff “for safe patient care, not to use the pandemic as an excuse to put patients at serious risk.” “I’m not out here today because I’m tired and I’m overworked and I’m scared,” Kelly Coulston, a cardiac nurse, told KTLA 5 News. “I’m out here because the public
Nurses protesting outside Methodist Hospital in Arcadia. | Photo courtesy of California Nurses Association/National Nurses United
needs to know what’s going on. The families trust us with their family members, and as a nurse, it eats at you morally when you feel like you can’t give the best care that you want to give, that you’re trained to give, because of these staffing ratios.” “Rolling back safety standards will surely lead
to more hospital-acquired infections, and put the lives of patients, registered nurses, and other health care workers at risk,” warned CNA/NNU President Zenei Cortez. “Instead of working with nurses to prepare, to plan, and to make sure they had the staffing in place before a massive wave hit,
hospitals want the state and all Californians to bail them out from the crisis they themselves have created.” “We are demanding the hospital staff safely, notify its nurses of exposure to COVID-19 and provide COVID testing as needed and according to state recommendations,” said Fiona
John, RN and nurse representative in the Mother Baby unit at Methodist Hospital. “We need to be protected and safe at work to ensure our patients are protected.” Read More on our website under News
City of Pasadena Vaccinates Scores of Health Care Workers Terry MILLER
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tmiller@beaconmedianews.com
ith the increasing numbers of COVID-19 rapidly rising in Los Angeles County, Pasadena is vaccinating health care workers as fast as possible so they may continue providing greatly needed services during this pandemic. Tuesday morning, the Pasadena Public Health Department (PPHD) vaccinated some in the community medical field through
the closed Medical Point of Dispensing (MPOD) model at Victory Park. This was the inaugural event and officials hope to have more like this soon. At this closed MPOD, the health dept. administered COVID-19 vaccines to critical health care workers, including Skilled Nursing Facility and Dialysis Center staff. This opportunity to receive vaccines is not available to the public, as PPHD is working through the tiers and phases set by the California Department of Public Health. This
MPOD can accommodate up to 550 people. "In the next two days we hope to vaccinate over 1,000 essential workers,” Lisa Derderian, Pasadena public information officer, said. In this MPOD, staff set up tents, tables and chairs, participated in briefings, and operations —either by screening forms, answering questions, observing vaccine recipients, or administering vaccines. The lines were short, and vaccinations took a mere minute or two.
A nurse prepares the COVID-19 vaccine for a health care worker at Tuesday’s drivethru vaccination center in Pasadena. | Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News