Providence Portland Medical Center has a COVID outbreak that infects more than 49 people

Providence Portland Medical Center has a COVID-19 outbreak of 49 people inside the hospital, Providence officials acknowledged Friday afternoon after being listed in a state report.

Of the 49 cases identified by the hospital, 13 were patient when exposed and another 36 were “caregivers”. (The hospital did not answer a question about whether the outbreak had spread to the Portland community, affecting contacts with Providence patients and staff.)

On the one hand, hospitals are a high-risk environment serving COVID-19 patients. On the other hand, hospitals must have the strictest controls against infections. But that did not prevent a massive outbreak.

Providence’s patients were not in a COVID-19 ward when the outbreak occurred. Instead, nurses union officials say, the outbreak was in 4k, an inpatient rehabilitation unit, where people recover from traumatic brain injuries, strokes and similar injuries.

Providence officials say the hospital has dealt with the crisis “proactively”.

“On December 22, we had an outbreak of COVID-19 in an 18-bed unit at Providence Portland Medical Center,” said Gary Walker, director of communications for Providence in Oregon.

Walker says all but one patient was discharged. “A patient is still being treated for diseases unrelated to COVID,” he says. “Providence proactively tested 217 caregivers who worked at the unit or came into contact with patients at the unit. Of that group, 36 caregivers tested positive. To date, 24 of 36 have returned to work.”

The last positive COVID-19 test of the outbreak was on December 31, Walker says, and the unit has been closed, cleaned and has not yet reopened.

Staff and members of the Oregon Nurses’ Association reported a different series of events, challenging the idea that the hospital was at the top of the crisis.

Sarah Brown, a nurse at the unit who spoke with WW as a union member who advocates for security changes, he said the first case came inexplicably in early December in a patient who had previously tested negative before being admitted to the infirmary.

At the time, the hospital did not track patient contacts as far as Brown knows, or tested nurses and patients in the unit until a group of nurses and patients started reporting symptoms a week or 10 days later, said Brown WW.

Brown says he believes almost every nurse on the ward, but his test was positive for COVID-19.

How did she escape the virus?

She wore an N95 mask “tested for fit”, which means she had the highest level of protection. She received the N95, which protects the user when in shape, just because she had to work on a COVID-19 floor earlier this year.

“I think that’s why I was negative,” says Brown. “I was taking care of patients with positive results.”

The hospital has not decided to make high-quality breathing masks available to all nurses and to equip them with nurses, she and other ONA people say.

Brown mentioned that the hospital could have required N95s with a fit test for all nurses and ensured that there was safe ventilation and “proper contact tracking” for the initial case.

“In my observation, I think several things went wrong that ended in catastrophe,” she said.

Oregon Nurses Association spokesman Kevin Mealy said that some nurses were not notified of the outbreak for four days – specifically, the group of nurses who float around the hospital, filling in where necessary, a delay that potentially increases the risk for other nurses. and patients throughout the hospital.

The outbreak comes amid a fierce and ongoing dispute between Providence and its nurses’ union over whether they are adequately protected at work.

Providence nurse Kim Martin, who is on the union’s negotiating committee, says she asked management N95 masks for nurses. “I’ve had [nurses] tell me that when they reached the COVID floor, they felt safe, “she says. The reason: they have better access to even higher quality protective equipment.

“It’s sad, upsetting and frustrating,” says Martin, arguing that the hospital should have agreed to the union’s demands for security sometime in the past 10 months. “I know that COVID has been difficult for people across the country, but if Providence had agreed with what nurses asked for in their ‘COVID Bill of Rights’ 10 months ago, a lot of anxiety, a lot of frustration and a lot of anger and many diseases could have been prevented. “

Union claims include ensuring access to exams for employees, “appropriate” personal protective equipment, paid time off in the event of a diagnosis of COVID-19, in addition to the presumption that COVID-19 is in service.

Providência did not answer questions from WW on the source of the outbreak, whether air quality or insufficient ventilation contributed, or whether adequate protective equipment was provided to nurses in the past or whether that would change in the future.

The hospital also did not answer the question of why some nurses may not have been promptly notified of the risk of exposure.

Walker, in Providence, says the hospital is conducting “genomic tests” – an apparent effort to find out if the most contagious new strain of COVID-19 arrived in Oregon and impacted the spread of the virus in this case.

An Oregon Health Authority official said, “OHA, in collaboration with the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], has been closely monitoring the results of laboratory tests in Oregon in an effort to detect new variants (mutations) of the COVID-19 virus, including the variant that recently appeared in the UK. So far, the variant has not been detected in any case in Oregon. “

OHA officials declined to comment on the outbreak in Providence, saying “we cannot comment on an individual outbreak”.

The outbreak occurs with the arrival of the vaccine to the state and is another reminder of what is at stake in this delayed effort.