Medical Workers From Washington Paint Grim Picture Of What’s To Come In Terms Of Protective Gear For Doctors, Nurses

ProPublica: Expired Respirators. Reused Masks. Nurses In The Nation’s Original Covid-19 Epicenter Offer Sobering Accounts Of What Could Come.
Nurses at one hospital in southeastern Washington state have alleged that, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they were ordered by supervisors to use one protective mask per shift, potentially exposing themselves to the novel coronavirus. At another hospital, just east of Seattle, nurses had to use face shields indefinitely. At a third hospital, on Washington’s border with Oregon, nurses reported that respirators were expired. The hospital responded, the nurses said, by ordering staff to remove stickers showing that the respirators might be as much as three years out of date. (Armstrong and Davila, 3/28)

ProPublica/New Mexico In Depth: This VA Hospital Cited “Misleading” Data To Restrict Mask Use For Health Care Workers
Hospital employees across the country have been blocked from wearing surgical masks in certain situations to protect against infection by the new coronavirus — including those they bring to work themselves. Workers at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have been told not to wear face masks unless they have lingering respiratory symptoms after an illness, are under surveillance following COVID-19 exposure or are treating patients showing signs of COVID-19. (Furlow and Miller, 3/27)

Modern Healthcare: Some Healthcare Workers Need Stronger COVID-19 Protections
While the safety of physicians and nurses has received much attention during the coronavirus pandemic, hospital housekeepers and nursing home and home health aides also need greater protection and support, labor and industry groups say. The most pressing need is for adequate supplies of personal protection equipment like N95 masks and gloves for these workers, whose safety often has gotten a lower priority. Housekeepers sometimes enter rooms wearing only gloves and find nurses garbed in head-to-toe protective equipment, said Anne Igoe, vice president for health systems at Service Employees International Union Healthcare in Chicago. (Meyer, 3/27)

Boston Globe: Cutbacks For Some Doctors And Nurses As They Battle On The Front Line 
Emergency room doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have been told some of their accrued pay is being held back. More than 1,100 Atrius Health physicians and staffers are facing reduced paychecks or unpaid furloughs, while pay raises for medical staff at South Shore Health, set for April, are being delayed. (Ostriker, 3/27)

ABC News: Crowdsourcing Desperately Needed Medical Supplies In Coronavirus Fight
Just a little over a week ago, Mericien Venzon was a typical fourth-year medical student at New York University. Dan Lurie was a cognitive neuroscience graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. Louise Siu and Sonia Hsia were both stay-at-home moms. None expected they’d be running citywide drives and fundraisers for health care workers in need of medical supplies during the novel coronavirus pandemic. (Roberts, 3/28)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. Eases Rules For Health-Care Workers, Others As Coronavirus Crisis Reveals ‘Inflexibility’ In Professional Licensing
In an effort to boost the number of health-care professionals on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak, Pennsylvania is chipping away at the bureaucratic barriers imposed on many of the state’s licensed workers. But two state senators say that broader, more sweeping changes — such as limiting which criminal convictions are considered disqualifying — are needed to tackle dual crises: the virus and the impending economic downturn. (Simon, 3/29)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Is Harshly Testing Our Capacities As Physicians And Medical Staffers
Many of the calls and messages from my primary care patients start, unnecessarily, with an apology. Teresa is in her 40s. She wants to let me know about thermometer readings that are higher than usual, but not quite a fever. A cough when she thinks about it. And shortness of breath — a symptom, she notes wryly, both of covid-19 and of covid-induced anxiety. Ava, a 26-year-old graduate student with asthma, tells me she feels run down and had a sore throat earlier this week. She wonders what she can do to keep herself and her roommate safe. (Ganguli, 3/28)

WBUR: Furloughs, Retirement Cuts And Less Pay Hit Mass. Doctors And Nurses As COVID-19 Spreads 
As infections grow on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, so does stress for health care workers.There were at least 184 hospital staff infected in Massachusetts as of Thursday night, and that’s only counting five hospitals that consistently report their numbers: Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women’s, Boston Medical Center, Tufts Medical Center and UMass Memorial Medical. (Bebinger, 3/27)

Modern Healthcare: Independent Physicians Push For Expedited COVID-19 Aid
Independent physicians are hoping for expedited federal aid as elective procedures and non-urgent, in-person doctors’ visits are postponed to accommodate more COVID-19 cases, threatening their practices’ viability. Many private-practice physician groups, which are owned by doctors rather than by a health system or other entity, have seen in-person visits drop 40% to 60% over the past several weeks, similar to hospitals and other providers. That decline is only partially offset by virtual visits, and practices that do not have telehealth capabilities are particularly vulnerable, physician group executives said. (Kacik, 3/27)