“We’re not being protected. We don’t have the right equipment. Nurses are getting sick.”
This is from a hospital in NY.
Our reporters @js_kaplan, @lizziepresser and @mayatmiller have talked to health care workers across NYC. Here’s what they had to say: (THREAD)
This is from a hospital in NY.
Our reporters @js_kaplan, @lizziepresser and @mayatmiller have talked to health care workers across NYC. Here’s what they had to say: (THREAD)
2/ “People haven’t been seen in several hours overnight, and when the morning team comes on, the person is sicker, or dead.”
👆That’s from a medical provider at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
👆That’s from a medical provider at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
3/ It’s not that more people die at the beginning of the day. But as a new shift arrives, doctors and nurses say they find patients who have died in the hours before and went undetected by a thin overnight staff.
4/ A rep for health care network overseeing Long Island Jewish told us “The claim that there has been a surge of deaths between 7-8 a.m. as a result of staffing shortages is blatantly false.”
“I strongly disagree with the assessment that we are lacking PPE,” the rep also said.
“I strongly disagree with the assessment that we are lacking PPE,” the rep also said.
5/ “We hear the overhead speakers say, ‘Code 3, Tower 7, Patient Room 732, Bed 1.’ Then there will be another one. And another one.”
👆 From a doctor at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.
👆 From a doctor at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.
6/ “Normally there are so many steps we would take to keep a close eye on them,” they said. “But we’re so swamped with patients coming in that we can’t keep up.”
7/ In response to the idea that patients code especially often during morning shift change, a spokeswoman for Maimonides said, “It is our experience that codes take place around the clock and are not clustered around any specific time.”
8/ One Brooklyn nurse said she and her colleagues have accidentally let patients’ medicine bags run empty.
9/ At another hospital in Brooklyn, a doctor said that last weekend, a 46-year-old patient took off his oxygen mask to go to the bathroom.
No one noticed.
They later found the man dead on the bathroom floor.
No one noticed.
They later found the man dead on the bathroom floor.
10/ A doctor in Manhattan said he has taken to instructing patients, from outside their rooms, on how to change their own oxygen settings.
“But you’re talking to someone who is sick and who doesn’t know how these machines work,” he said.
“But you’re talking to someone who is sick and who doesn’t know how these machines work,” he said.
11/ The hospitals themselves say their staff members have enough PPE and assert that efforts to conserve equipment and protect staff weren’t affecting patient care.
12/ One Manhattan nurse said they are using N95 masks for up to 11 days, & getting a new one is always a struggle. Before, they wouldn’t even go from one patient’s room to another without changing masks. Now they’re scolded if they ask for more before their mask is visibly dirty.
13/ “Of course, we want to do what’s best for the patient, and in this situation we have to cut corners that we wouldn’t usually, but the alternatives are losing half your workforce. Using all your resources on one patient, doing everything, everything, using all your PPE.”
14/ “We’re trying really hard to do our jobs and help people, but it’s a really fine line. We’re not being protected. We don’t have the right equipment. Nurses are getting sick. What do you expect? Patient care is suffering.” propub.li/2wz470q
15/ That quote comes from a nurse at Brooklyn Hospital Center, which did not respond to requests for comment.
16/ “If someone has a leaking stool bag, are you going to go in and change it every hour? No. You’re not going to expose yourself.”
👆 That’s from the nurse in Manhattan.
👆 That’s from the nurse in Manhattan.
17/ Are you a health care worker who wants to tell us what you’re seeing?
Here’s the place to get in touch: propub.li/2XowOrZ
Here’s the place to get in touch: propub.li/2XowOrZ
18/ We’ll be publishing many more coronavirus investigations.
Sign up to get the next one when it drops.
propub.li/3e9ObCE
Sign up to get the next one when it drops.
propub.li/3e9ObCE
