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 (video).
The Murphy administration may step in to force hospitals to report COVID-19 outbreaks among staff as legislation requiring the public disclosure remains stalled in the state capital.
Health Professionals and Allied Employees, the union that represents 14,000 nurses in New Jersey, called on the state Monday to change that and require hospitals to track sick workers.
The scope of staff sickness, absence and deaths at New Jersey hospitals due to COVID-19 remains unknown nine months into the pandemic, despite concerns that a reduced workforce may hamper the hospitals’ ability to absorb a rising wave of sick patients.
As many as 40 employees at Palisades Medical Center have gotten sick from COVID-19 and more than 100 employees at Ocean Medical Center have also tested positive. NBC New York’s Gilma Avalos reports (video)
About 30 to 40 employees at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen have tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the hospital to transfer some patients and divert ambulances to other emergency rooms, according to a union official and a hospital executive.
"It feels as if we are on a railroad track watching a speeding train hurtling toward us, knowing it will eventually hit us," said HPAE President Debbie White, RN. "What is quickly becoming clear to us is that this surge
Michele Burlington survived the first wave of the coronavirus on the front lines, working in a hospital’s packed COVID-19 unit. But she wasn’t going to risk the second wave. Even if it meant giving up her career of 42 years.
Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli says complaint by union is under investigation
Trinitas Regional Medical Center and its affiliates will become part of RWJBarnabas Health under a definitive merger agreement the systems entered into on Nov. 11.