Miami VA nurses demand greater protection and pay in pandemic, but bosses won’t budge
Hundreds of nurses at the Miami VA Medical Center are so frustrated with what they say is a lack of coronavirus safeguards — including not being allowed to wear higher quality protective masks in some instances — that they are planning a protest at the hospital next Wednesday to draw attention to their unmet demands.
Registered nurses in the hospital’s union said that a meeting with top Miami VA officials last week resulted in no management concessions to their demands, from contact tracing to wider distribution of respirator masks to hazard pay for treating COVID-19 patients.
The National Nurses United union spelled out its demands in a letter after about 200 members said they were terrified by an outbreak in mid-June when about 30 healthcare workers tested positive for COVID-19 at the Miami VA. Since then, during the latest coronavirus surge, the number of staff employees infected with the virus has more than doubled, the VA’s online records show.
“We have grave concerns about working conditions at the Miami VA,” National Nurses United wrote in the letter to senior hospital officials. The letter, obtained by the Miami Herald, was the basis of last week’s meeting between the union and management.
“The potentially deadly consequences to both nurses and patients that are the result of hospital administration’s failures to plan and prepare for this COVID-19 pandemic stress the critical nature of this obligation,” the letter said. “The stark reality is that if you don’t provide nursing staff with the protections you owe us under the law, it is extremely likely that more and more of us will become infected, ill and unavailable to provide patient care.”
What spooked them was the outbreak in the hospital’s progressive care unit that exposed more than two dozen nurses to the virus, union members said. It was the largest outbreak at the facility since the start of the pandemic, Miami VA officials acknowledged. It was also the largest outbreak of COVID-19 among healthcare workers at a Florida hospital, according to news media reports.
Asked about the National Nurses United’s demands, a spokeswoman for the VA healthcare system in Florida said the Miami VA has taken appropriate measures to protect its employees since the beginning of the pandemic.
“The situation outlined in the NNU letter does not reflect our preparedness and response actions that have proven to keep our patients and employees safe,” Mary Kay Rutan told the Miami Herald Friday. “Additionally, many of the demands identified in the letter are already part of the facility’s operational response to this pandemic and have been for months.”
Rutan said the Miami VA’s protective “practices have helped limit our current COVID-19 employee infection rate to .7 percent of the workforce,” but she is only referring to a couple of dozen active cases, not to more than 100 others in some stage of recovering from the disease.
During the latest coronavirus surge in South Florida, the number of Miami VA employees diagnosed with COVID-19 has more than doubled from 2 percent in mid-June. Roughly 5 percent — or more than 145 — of all employees have tested positive for the coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease, according to the VA’s website Friday.
Fearful of the escalating spread this summer, Miami VA’s nurses union fired off the letter pressuring the hospital’s senior officials to meet 11 demands for safer conditions. They were summarily rejected at last week’s meeting with management.
Among them: testing for all registered nurses in high-risk areas or whoever requests the COVID-19 test; contact tracing within two days of testing for everyone diagnosed with coronavirus — both veterans and staff — and then notifications sent to those who were exposed; and for those employees exposed to the virus, safety leave for 14 days.
The union also demanded that nurses be allowed to wear heavier N95 respirator masks instead of lighter surgical masks in non-COVID-19 patient units at the 278-bed hospital.
Since the pandemic hit South Florida in March, the Miami VA has imposed a policy of supplying its own masks and requiring that healthcare workers in COVID-19 patient units wear N95 respirator masks but those in others areas wear surgical masks.
“Cloth masks, scarves or homemade masks are not authorized,” Kalautie Jang Dhari, director of the Miami VA Healthcare System, wrote in a recent email to all staff members. “Employees will be issued and are expected to wear a VA-issued face mask on VA property. Masks will be provided for daily use by your service chief or supervisor.”
The VA’s spokewoman, Rutan, said that the “Miami VA Medical Center provides employees with all required Personal Protective Equipment in accordance with CDC guidelines and the facility is stocked with an adequate supply of PPE for current demand.”
The Miami VA’s nurses union has also insisted on hazard pay of 25 percent an hour for all staff treating COVID-19 patients, but top hospital officials have rejected that request.
“Hazard pay is to compensate employees when risks cannot be reasonably mitigated and employees cannot be safely protected, and that is the opposite of the current environment at Miami VA,” Rutan said.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 2:21 PM.
