Virtua hospital in clash with staff over request to work with COVID-19
Taken from NJSpotlight
By Brenda Flanagan
November 18, 2020
Hospital administrators and doctors fear that staff shortages could have an impact on treatment and care in New Jersey’s second wave of the coronavirus. Doctors fear a dangerous repeat from the first wave as a new report from Rutgers University finds health care workers, especially nurses, have a higher prevalence of COVID-19 than non-health care workers.
At one New Jersey hospital, staff report being called into work even though they have been infected with or exposed to the virus — if they are asymptomatic and have not had a fever in 48 hours. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contingency guidelines do allow COVID-positive, but asymptomatic health care professionals to work in COVID units during severe staffing shortages.) Senior Correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports.