Oakland hospital fined for COVID19 violations

State health and safety regulators have fined the Summit Campus of Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland more than $155,000 for allegedly violating infectious disease control standards related to the coronavirus, California Nurses Association officials said.

Officials with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Cal/OSHA, could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

According to the nurses union, Cal/ OSHA issued eight citations in part because the hospital failed to properly isolate patients with COVID19 and did not give appropriate safety equipment to nurses who worked on the same unit as Janine PaistePonder, an Oakland nurse who died of

COVID in July after caring for infected patients. The union said the hospital was fined $155,250.

Sutter Health officials told The Chronicle on Saturday that they disagree with Cal/OSHA’s findings and have appealed the citations.

“None of the findings are specific to the passing of our beloved colleague,” Sutter Health officials said in a statement. “We continue to mourn her loss and are disappointed that her memory is being used for political gain.”

Among the other safety violations that union officials said prompted the Cal/ OSHA citations were that the hospital required nurses to reuse N95 masks, failed to implement a plan to control airborne diseases, and did not quickly tell nurses about coronavirus exposures.

“It is heartbreaking Janine had to die before these problems were taken seriously enough for a state investigation,” Mike Hill, chief nurse representative at the Oakland facility said in a statement Friday.

In 2015, Sutter Health agreed to pay $71,275 in fines issued by Cal/ OSHA after an investigation found safety violations for handling patients with suspected airborne diseases at the same facility. In that case, Sutter Health also appealed the findings. In a settlement, the hospital agreed to pay half of the fines first issued, and to change its procedures for handling patients with airborne illnesses.