Anticipating Staffing Shortages, Hospitals Take Steps To Train Up Some Workers, Call Back Retired Providers

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Take An ‘All-Hands-On-Deck’ Approach To Staffing During Pandemic
Though Ohio’s measures have begun flattening the curve so that some of the latest projected surge numbers are looking less drastic, Northeast Ohio hospitals are taking every precaution to ensure they have the providers needed to care for patients. Some clinical staff who work in nonessential surgeries and procedures, which have been put on hold for the time being, are being trained and reassigned. Others are furloughed or working fewer hours, standing at the ready and staying healthy as workforce needs evolve, which is especially important given healthcare providers’ heightened risk of contracting COVID-19. (Coutré, 4/13)

State House News Service: Hazard Pay Coming To Many Mass. Health Care Workers
Thousands of state health care workers will be getting a raise after the union representing licensed nurses and caregivers working in Massachusetts state hospitals and group homes struck a deal Sunday night with the state to increase pay by as much as $10 an hour for the duration of the COVID-19 health emergency. The hazard pay for health care workers will kick in immediately, according to the union, and will last at least through May 30, and possibly longer. (Murphy, 4/13)

Boston Globe: Decontaminated N95 Masks Boost Spirits Of Front-Line Hospital Workers 
As part of a bold initiative involving hospitals across the state, MGH on Monday began distributing thousands of freshly decontaminated N95 masks to health care workers after the equipment went through an elaborate cleaning process at a site now up and running in Somerville. The treatment takes place inside a giant decontamination machine owned and operated by the Ohio nonprofit Battelle. Hospitals plan to use the machine to alleviate critical shortages of respirator masks for workers battling the coronavirus pandemic. (Ostriker and Dayal McCluskey, 4/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser, Health Care Unions Agree On Child Care, Housing Benefits For Workers In Coronavirus Fight 
Kaiser Permanente will provide additional benefits to workers battling the coronavirus outbreak through an agreement reached Monday with unions. More than 150,000 workers at Kaiser can receive child care assistance, alternate lodging if they contract the virus or work double shifts, and extra leave if they contract the virus, according to a release from the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which negotiated the agreement. (Kawahara, 4/13)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee YMCA Provides Child Care For Health Care Professionals During Coronavirus
Everybody’s “pivoting” to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Fine dining restaurants are providing takeout. Tour guides are delivering food. And distilleries are producing disinfectants. The YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee has pivoted as well. After-school activities, early childhood programs and recreational facilities are closed.Now the Y is providing emergency child care for health care professionals and essential emergency personnel. (Schwabe, 4/13)

The New York Times: He Was A Doctor Who Never Got Sick. Then The Coronavirus Nearly Killed Him.
At the end of February, Dr. Ryan Padgett’s colleagues in the emergency room called him over to share some news: A patient who had died the previous day had tested positive for the coronavirus — the first known death in the United States. Everything, they knew, was about to change. Over the next several days, a parade of patients from a nearby nursing home was brought into the emergency room at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, Wash., which emerged as the first center of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak. (Baker, 4/13)