Nurses, hospitals in conflict over infection source
Over the past CLEVELAND— several months, hospitals have repeatedly said contact tracing shows the doctors, nurses and other health care workers who’ve acquired COVID-19 are largely being infected through community spread.
Leaders from the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and University Hospitals made those assertions during a Nov. 16 news briefingwhere they announced that hundreds of health careworkers and other hospital employees were sidelined due to the virus. The claim has also been repeated by leaders from other Ohio hospitals who’ve appeared at Gov. Mike DeWine’s coronavirus briefings.
Yet those assertions have puzzled and disheartened nurses who are at the front lines of the pandemic.
They question how hospitals can pinpoint where they acquired a virus that is so widespread, and they contend it’s just as likely they were infectedwhile treating COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, nurses feel that suggesting they’re getting the virus through community spread insinuates they’re being careless once they’re off the clock.
“Everytimesomeonefrom a hospital is talking, they seemto want to throwin that this is allcommunity spread, that health careworkers are not getting (COVID-19) in the hospital,” saidBrandon Marlow, a labor representative from the Ohio Nurses Association. “It just seems very curious, why it’s a consistent message they feel they need to give.”
Marlow said he isn’t sure why hospitals continuetosay employees are being infected outside ofwork. He assumes it could be related to liability reasons, andsaid several hospitals have made the same assertions in private meetings with the ONA.
However, several of Cleveland’s largest health systems said they are offering paid leave to employees who contract COVID-19 without requiring them to use vacation or paid time off.
Data on the topic is scarce, although one study published in The Lancet found frontlinehealth careworkers were at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 than the general community.
Doug Meredith, an ICU nurse at Cleveland Clinic Akron General, said health careworkerswhoare around coronavirus patients every day know the severity of the virus and take precautions to protect themselves outside ofwork. He said it’s discouraging to hear hospitals suggest employees are getting infected elsewhere.
“I think (nurses) do take it personally. They do feel like their professionalism is being questioned, because of what they do outside of work,” he said. “Because I think we all try to do the right thing.”
Hospitals inCleveland said they trust their employees and do not believe they’re being careless in the community. Instead, they feel the high number of employees who’ve contracted the virus is the result of a spike in infections across Ohio.
“Our caregivers are highly professional, andcontracting COVID-19 outside the hospital is not a reflection of their professionalism, but a reflection of how contagious this virus can be in the community,” aUHspokesman said.
Hospitals say they’ve been conducting contact tracing when an employee tests positive for COVID-19 to identify the source of infection. Leadership for the Clinic, MetroHealth and UH said during theNov. 16news briefing that the rise in infections among employees largely mirrored thespikeincoronaviruscases in Northeast Ohio.
But the ONA is skeptical the hospitals can truly identify where and when someone was infected, Marlow said. Even though employees are wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and taking otherprecautions in the hospital, there’s still a risk they’re being exposed.
“What [hospitals] would like to say is that because all these measures are in place, there’s noway somebody could be getting it in the hospital,” he said. “And I don’t know if that’s a conclusion a reasonable person could come to.”