The outbreak of COVID at Bremerton Hospital makes workers worried. Spokane has 37 new cases

The outbreak of COVID-19 at the St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton is causing health workers to sound an alarm after delaying public health and hospital authorities from notifying several units of the virus’ infection.

The Bremerton outbreak is a declining prevalence of COVID-19 across the state.

Spokane Regional Health District confirmed 37 new cases on Tuesday with no new deaths. There are currently 5,125 cases in county residents, with more than half of those cases believed to have recovered. Forty-three people are admitted to Spokane’s hospital with COVID-19, of whom 34 are residents of Spokane County.

Bremerton Medical Center warned the Kitsap Public Health District on August 4 that the employee tested positive for COVID-19. District Timeline..

Then, on August 13, based on other positive COVID-19 cases, the health district discovered five cases connected to one particular unit of the hospital. On August 14, an outbreak was declared in the Kitsap Public Health Area.

But workers, represented by UFCW 21, say they weren’t notified about employees testing positive or outbreaks until August 17.

A 20-year nurse at St. Michael’s Medical Center and a member of the union, Cindy Frank told reporters he wasn’t wary of an outbreak until Tuesday, August 17, or at the latest.

Rob Shoger, a certified nursing assistant at St. Michael’s Medical Center, said he learned about an outbreak from his brother who saw a local news report.

Initially, only intimate contact of units with confirmed cases of COVID-19 was tested against the virus.

Dr. Michael Anderson, Chief Medical Officer of CHI Franciscan, who runs the medical center, said, “We have used the resources allocated for this to think about how contacts can hit us the most. I told reporters on Monday.

On August 14, the Kitsap Public Health School recommended testing all patients and staff in the unit, but by August 18, the virus had spread to another unit.

As of Monday, August 24, the Kitsap Public Health Area had confirmed 45 outbreak-related cases, 30 of whom were staff and 15 of whom were hospital patients. The virus has spread to at least 3 units and is not accepting additional patients. According to Anderson, the patients who were in these units were staying and regularly monitored and tested.

Currently, all hospital staff and patients are being tested, but the results are slowly returning, making it a difficult choice to return to work or go to work, even if you have no symptoms. You will not be forced to.

Both Shoger and Frank were tested last Thursday. On Tuesday, employees at both hospitals regained the test results. Frank also received a text that her test failed at a press conference. While waiting for results, employees can continue to work, depending on the risk assessment, as long as they do not show symptoms.

Anderson told reporters Monday that each staff member returning to work had a different risk and was assessed using criteria from the Centers for Disease Control.

For Shoger, it meant that he was told to use his “best judgement” to assess whether he should return to work before his test results returned. He was asymptomatic and passed a workplace screening for a night shift Monday night. His test returned negatively Tuesday morning after he worked overnight. At the hospital, all employees are tested for body temperature and symptoms.

Certain employees who have come into direct contact with people who test positive have taken 14 days of administrative leave and are out. According to Shoger, the 14-day exposure quarantine has resulted in an extremely large number of employees and the staffing is severe.

UFCW 21 requires workers to be tested promptly so that results return between 24 and 48 hours, as it does for inpatients who have been tested for the virus.

They said one of his colleagues, Shogger and Frank, who was supposed to be part of a trade union press conference on Tuesday, was instead in an emergency room fighting to breathe COVID-19.

“Our colleague who was positive wasn’t even informed that he was exposed, and now he’s sick and is in the ER today,” Frank said Tuesday.

The St. Michael Medical Center limited the number of visitors to the end-of-life care scenario when an outbreak was confirmed to one. Anderson said he will continue to monitor and retest patients on a regular basis.

The Department of Health data show shows that outbreaks in health facilities continue throughout the pandemic. As of August 15, there were 117 outbreaks at medical facilities that were not nursing homes. An outbreak in a healthcare facility is one or two cases identified and connected to that shared location, depending on whether it is an inpatient or outpatient.

The Ministry of Health was at the site of St. Michael’s Medical Center on Tuesday. Members of UFCW 21 were not notified Tuesday that the CDC also had a site visit.

Dr. Gibb Morrow, a public health officer for the Kitsap Public Health District, said he expects to see more cases from the outbreak in the coming days.

The hospital is testing all staff, and Shoger said there is now a planned drive-up test available to hospital workers.

Local and state health authorities traced the outbreak to one employee.

Kitsap Public Health officials contacted the State Department of Health for additional recommendations as the outbreak expanded. The station was also at the site of the St. Michael Medical Center on Tuesday.

“I’m not sure this is the first hospital in these outbreaks, but I believe they can help control it,” Lindquist said.

Arielle Dreher’s report on The Spokesman-Review is provided in part by Report for America and members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished free of charge by other organizations under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper Editor-in-chief.