Union wants New Jersey hospitals to report employee COVID-19 infections
Taken from WPIX News
December 7, 2020
As the number of COVID-19 cases surge in the Garden State, front line medical workers are also getting sick. And now, a health care workers union is calling on the state to track hospital outbreaks.
“Inside our hospital, we struggle to reduce exposures to COVID,” critical care nurse Tiffany Busby said. She works at the Jersey Shore University Medical Center. It’s one of several hospitals within the Hackensack Meridian Health system.
The Health Professionals and Allied Employees union has reported that dozens of its members at the Jersey Shore, Ocean and Palisades Medical Centers have contracted the coronavirus.
“We’re now well into a second surge of COVID-19 and already we are hearing reports of outbreaks among hospital workers. This is so alarming,” HPAE union president Debbie White said.
The union has called on the state to require hospitals to report how many of their workers are sick with COVID-19.
“There is no mandate from our state government, no law that would force hospitals to keep track of sick hospital workers,” White said.