Mar 31, 2020 5 min read

Health care workers at one nursing home in eastern Pennsylvania where three co-workers have tested positive for COVID-19 have been given paper face masks that they’ve been instructed to store in a paper bag between uses. The nursing home administrators told the workers they will be issued new masks once a week.

A home-care worker for Transitional Paths to Independent Living (TRPIL) in Washington said she does not have sufficient personal protective equipment, or PPE, to keep her and her clients safe.

Employees of other long-term care facilities are relying on face masks sewn by community members and organizations in response to the shortages.

“I’ve been a nurse for over 33 years, and never in my life did I expect to be facing something like this,” said Donna, a nurse at the eastern Pennsylvania nursing home, who spoke on the condition her last name not be used. “So little is being done to protect us. Some people say as a nurse, this is what you signed up for. Yes, I signed up to care for the sick, but what we didn’t sign up for was to run into a pandemic without proper equipment. We are all scared. I come to work every day scared – scared for my patients, my co-workers, my family and my community.”

Health care workers on Monday called on the federal government to immediately address the critical shortage of PPE, which has left them to treat COVID-19 patients without gear they need, including N95 masks, face shields and gowns.

Increasingly, workers are expressing fear and frustration that the lack of protective gear is putting their lives in danger and making it hard for them to keep their patients and the community safe.

During a phone conference that included state Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Healthcare Association, workers urged the Trump administration to:

• Immediately distribute masks and equipment held in the Strategic National Stockpile.
• Identify reserves of masks and equipment in other industries – such as construction – and redistribute them to health-care providers.
• Use all powers of the federal government, including enacting the Defense Production Act, to speed immediate production of new equipment, and ensure the protective gear is routed to states for distribution at acute care, home care and long-term care facilities.
• Ensure that all frontline health-care workers be tested to slow the spread of the virus.

Matthew Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, which represents 45,000 health-care workers in hospitals, nursing homes, home care and state agencies, said nursing homes and long-term care providers care for the elderly, who are at higher risk for COVID-19 complications, and it’s imperative that care providers have “all the tools in the toolbox” to continue to provide care, noting the responsibility to keep staff and patients safe.

Nursing homes – the epicenter for several outbreaks throughout the country – not only house high-risk patients in close quarters, but they also require aides to treat multiple patients, which increases the likelihood for the virus to spread more quickly.

Casey called for the federal government to immediately increase production of PPE, and said funding approved through recent passage of federal bills, including the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, should be used to produce PPE, testing kits and ventilators.

“We’ve got to make sure we have the same regard for health-care workers that we do for soldiers in combat,” said Casey. “They’re doing everything we ask of them in a pandemic. They’re fighting a war, the likes of which we have not seen since World War II, and we have to treat it that way.”

Casey also on Monday sent a letter to President Donald Trump in support of Pennsylvania’s request for a Major Disaster declaration.

The state – where 4,087 confirmed cases and 49 deaths were reported as of Monday – is asking for the aid to provide additional support for state, county and municipal governments and certain nonprofits, along with individuals struggling during the pandemic. Gov. Tom Wolf declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31.

In the letter, Casey noted Wolf has “utilized all of the resources at his disposal, but in the face of such a colossal threat, more resources are necessary to take on this unprecedented challenge. “

Casey noted during the phone conference the lack of an early and sustained federal response to the protective gear shortage, which has left state and local governments to scramble for PPE for hospitals and other health care facilities.

The lack of PPE is so severe that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has loosened its guidelines and is advising workers with diminishing supplies to reuse masks, guidance that reverses longstanding practices. As a last resort, it recommends using bandannas and scarves.

“As a nurse, I demand that the Trump administration step up. This is unacceptable,” said Donna. “We have the ability in this country to make PPE, and it has to happen. We needed this equipment weeks ago. We are so far behind on this virus. We saw what was coming. We saw what was happening in China. We should have done more. It’s unimaginable that in this age, I’m expected to come to work with a bandanna or scarf or homemade mask. I don’t know what the outcome is going to be, but I’m very, very fearful.”