Felipe Posada
He works six to seven days a week, but when he goes home for dinner with his family, Thomas Yadegar, MD, takes a few minutes to gather himself before going inside. Sometimes he breaks down. The 20 physicians he leads at the ICU at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in L.A. and West Hills Hospital & Medical Center confide in him that they too “stop on their drive home and just cry,” he says. They all have nightmares. “I don’t see how any human who has gone through and witnessed what we have could not be changed dramatically and to the core,” he says. He hasn’t had a second to prepare for how over 14 months of watching COVID-19 patients die will affect him going forward.
Dive Brief:
Union nurses and HCA Healthcare reached a tentative contract agreement that members at three Southern California hospitals will vote on Tuesday and Wednesday, effectively averting a 10-day strike planned to start Christmas Eve.
The new contract includes greater transparency and communication on emergency preparedness plans from the hospitals to employees and guarantees the hospitals will provide personal protective equipment as required by state law, according to a statement from Service Employees International Union 121RN. It also stipulates the hiring of dozens of nurses at each hospital to ensure other staff get adequate rest and meal breaks.
If ratified, it will be the first union contract for employees at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California. About 120 pharmacists, clinical laboratory scientists, physical, speech and occupational therapists, social workers and dietitians formed their union in December of 2019.
Nurses at 3 California HCA hospitals set for holiday strike as ICU capacity dwindles healthcaredive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from healthcaredive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Nurses plan to strike at 3 SoCal hospitals amid COVID-19 staffing shortages
Nurses plan to strike at 3 SoCal hospitals
LOS ANGELES - Nurses are calling for a strike at three hospitals in Southern California next week amid the COVID-19 surge across the region.
2,500 nurses plan to strike at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, Riverside Community Hospital and West Hills Hospital & Medical Center starting December 24 and ending January 3. The nurses are asking for additional staffing at hospitals and more safeguards. I don t think a strike is the best choice, but sometimes it s the only choice, said Kerry Cavazos, a Registered Nurse for Riverside Community Hospital and the Union President.
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UPDATE: Dec. 17, 2020: The two sides held their last scheduled bargaining session Wednesday night and plan to meet again Thursday to continue discussions, according to an email statement from HCA.
Local groups, including the Hospital Association of Southern California, have expressed concern at the timing of the strike given current COVID-19 surges. I must also be clear that in no way are we questioning any union s right to engage in negotiations, including their right to strike, but now is simply not the time, HASC President George Greene said in a release. All involved must set their differences aside to keep every possible hospital bed open and ready not just for COVID patients, but for every Californian needing care.