It’s Not Just Providers’ Health Impacted By Rationed Gear: Patients Get Less Care When PPE Runs Low

ProPublica: Rationing Protective Gear Means Checking On Coronavirus Patients Less Often. This Can Be Deadly.
Every morning, between 7 and 8, at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, several coronavirus patients are pronounced dead. It’s not that more people die at the beginning of the day, according to two medical providers at the hospital. But as a new shift arrives, doctors and nurses find patients who have died in the hours before and went undetected by a thin overnight staff. (Kaplan, Presser and Miller, 4/10)

The New York Times: Hospitals Warn Nurses And Doctors Not To Speak Out On Coronavirus
It was the fliers bearing his photo that made Adam Witt suspect something had gone deeply wrong. Last week, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where he worked as a nurse, posted the fliers at two security stations, declaring that he was persona non grata. “Mr. Witt is not allowed on property at JSUMC,” the writing said, beneath a picture of him looking tired and pained. “If he is seen on property please contact your supervisor immediately.” (Scheiber and Rosenthal, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Faulty N95 Masks Hamper Hospitals On Coronavirus Front Line
Some hospitals say they are buying faulty imitations of the high-quality N95 masks workers need to treat patients with Covid-19, a new hazard for officials scouring the globe for scarce protective gear. Hospital executives and local officials said they are trying to procure whatever masks they can from private stockpiles and lesser-known manufacturers around the world. Some have bought N95 masks—which block 95% of very small airborne particles—that are failing basic quality tests, indicating they might not guard against the new coronavirus. (Hufford, 4/9)

ProPublica: Pharmacy Workers Are Coming Down With COVID-19. But They Can’t Afford To Stop Working.
At his home in the Bronx, where he lies in bed with a fever, Jose Peralta keeps replaying the scene in his head. It was Monday, March 16, the start of an unusually hectic week at a Walgreens in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Peralta, a senior pharmacy technician, was on his way to take a break when he noticed a familiar customer waiting in line to pick up medication. “I thought, Gee it would be nice to help this guy,” Peralta said. “We’ve all been trying to minimize exposure and make sure that people don’t have to spend too long in the store.” (Kofman, 4/9)

The Associated Press: Rising From Sick Beds, COVID Medics Head Back To Front Lines
“Be strong, mum, we really love you,” is what Dr. Aurelie Gouel’s kids tell the ICU physician when she sets off for long hospital shifts trying to save critically ill coronavirus patients. Although aged just 4 and 6, Gouel’s children are acutely aware of how dangerous the disease can be not only because their mother has briefed them but also because she is among the more than 1.6 million people worldwide who have fallen sick. Tell-tale symptoms — fever, cough, intense fatigue, difficulty breathing — floored Gouel in March. (Leicester, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Hospitals Are Laying Off Staff In Midst Of The Coronavirus Pandemic
Hospitals across the country have deferred or canceled non-urgent surgeries to free up bed space and equipment for covid-19 patients. But that triage maneuver cut off a main source of income, causing huge losses that have forced some hospitals to let go of health-care workers as they struggle to treat infected patients. Last week, Bon Secours Mercy Health, which runs 51 hospitals in seven states, announced it would furlough 700 workers. (Harris, Sondel and Schneider, 4/9)

ABC News: DACA Health Care Workers Worry About Their Status Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 
For Aldo Martinez, a paramedic in Fort Myers, Fla., who often works a 37-hour shift, the long days have become routine since the coronavirus pandemic broke out -- several of his colleagues have had to self-quarantine out of fears they may have been exposed to COVID-19. Aside from filling in for his colleagues, tending to the dozens of calls he receives each day, and keeping himself safe on the job, Aldo feels an extra degree of pressure as one of more nearly 680,000 young immigrants whose ability to work in the country would be threatened if the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is not reinstated. (Garcia, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News/The Guardian: ‘Baby, I Can’t Breathe’: America’s First ER Doctor To Die In Heat Of COVID-19 Battle
At about 5 a.m. on March 19, a New York City ER physician named Frank Gabrin texted a friend about his concerns over the lack of medical supplies at hospitals. “It’s busy ― everyone wants a COVID test that I do not have to give them,” he wrote in the message to Eddy Soffer. “So they are angry and disappointed. ”Worse, though, was the limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) — the masks and gloves that help keep health care workers from getting sick and spreading the virus to others. (Gee, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: Doctors Struggle To Inform Families Of Coronavirus Deaths
Matt Kaufman is accustomed to death. He knows well the task of telling people that someone they love is gone — from a stroke, an overdose, a car accident, or any of the dire scenarios he often sees at the urban New Jersey hospital where he works. Usually, says the emergency room doctor, he can find a way to honor the gravity of the moment with small but meaningful gestures of compassion — waiting while a family member cries, touching them gently on the shoulder, or simply looking them in the eye to give them words nobody wants to hear. (Blake, 4/9)

Boston Globe: Testing Has Begun On Mask Decontamination System In Somerville 
Testing has begun on a massive mask decontamination machine in Somerville that is expected to be a game-changer in the state’s quest for personal protective equipment to protect health care workers on the front lines in the coronavirus pandemic. “We are doing test runs now,” said Dr. Paul Biddinger, medical director for emergency preparedness at Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners Healthcare. “We’re going through a phased start right now. ... We have to make sure it works.” (Finucane, 4/9)

Boston Globe: Universities In Boston Area To House Health Care Workers, First Responders During The COVID-19 Crisis
Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced Thursday that Boston University has made 75 beds available for employees of the Pine Street Inn, a homelessness shelter in the South End, while Northeastern University will have 135 rooms available to Boston first responders who need a place to stay and self-isolate when they’re not working. (Enos, 4/9)

Houston Chronicle: Local Professional Costume Maker Sewing Hundreds Of Face Masks For Healthcare Workers 
Local costume designer and professional seamstress Romy McCloskey began making homemade face masks for her husband more than a month ago as he continued to work in his office during the beginning phases of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic.Her efforts since then have grown exponentially, and the world-renowned fashion creator and IMDB-recognized costume designer — whose work has been worn on the Red Carpet of the Academy Awards and other film productions — is now making hundreds of handmade surgical face masks in her home workshop, including a new request to make masks for U.S. Postal Service workers in The Woodlands. (Forward, 4/9)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Some Georgia Workers Worry About Safety Amid Coronavirus
Over the past two weeks, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has heard from dozens of Georgians who feel they are working in unsafe environments. They ranged from call center to hospital workers. Their main complaints were inadequate social distancing, not being allowed to work from home and lack of hazard pay. Almost all declined to speak on the record, for fear of losing their jobs. (Suggs, 4/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Group Fears Nurses Jetting To NYC Could Leave Georgia In The Lurch
The viral photo offered an image of solidarity in the thick of a crisis: In the cabin of a Southwest Airlines plane bound for New York City, more than two dozen Georgia health care workers look up from their seats, all smiling and making heart shapes with their hands. Southwest posted the photo on Instagram late last month, just as the novel coronavirus pandemic was exploding in New York. “This photo embodies it all: bravery, courage, and sacrifice,” the post said. But back in Georgia, where COVID-19 infections are expected to peak in the coming weeks, the image of nurses packed into an outbound airliner could have troubling implications. Fears are stirring of what could happen if too many Georgia doctors and nurses are on the front lines somewhere else. (Edwards and Stirgus, 4/9)

WBUR: Hospital Cleaner Looks At Coronavirus Pandemic As A Chance To Give Back To Her Community 
Westchester County alone has more than 15,000 coronavirus cases as of Thursday, with a rate of 1,640 infected people per 100,000, according to data from The New York Times. That’s more than New York City, which has a rate of 969 cases per 100,000 people. Plus, White Plains Hospital is a 20-minute drive from New Rochelle, where an exponentially growing cluster of coronavirus cases was discovered in early March, kicking off the greater state battle with the virus. (Young and Jeffery, 4/9)

WBUR: Frontline Nurses Frustrated Over Lack Of Support, Union President Says
Nurses throughout the country are protesting a lack of protections for treating patients with COVID-19. And many nurses are sick, too. In California, the state department of public health is reporting more than 1,600 health care workers have tested positive for the coronavirus. (Mosley and Raphelson, 4/9)

State House News Service: Baker Signs New Orders To Bolster Medical Staff Ahead Of COVID-19 Case Surge 
Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday signed three executive orders intended to expand the state's health care capacity as it prepares for a coming surge in COVID-19 cases. One will make it easier for foreign-educated doctors to get licensed in Massachusetts, another will allow nursing school graduates and those in their final semester to practice, while directly supervised, before they receive their license, and the third mandates that insurers must cover all medically required costs of COVID-19 treatment, with no charge to patients, in out-of-network hospitals. (Lannan, 4/9)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Coronavirus Kills Two Health Care Workers In Northern Nevada  
Two of the 10 COVID-19 deaths reported in Washoe County as of Thursday have been health workers, the latest coming Tuesday. Nurse Vianna Thompson, 52, worked floating shifts at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System and at Northern Nevada Medical Center, both in Reno. She died Tuesday at the VA hospital, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. (Dentzer, 4/9)