Support the Nursing Home Workers’ Bill of Rights

IMG_0039 (2)Protect All Workers: Equity and Justice for All Nursing Home Workers and Residents

Three months into the coronavirus pandemic, more than 44,000 residents and nursing home workers have died. We believe that every worker and every nursing home resident has an essential human right to live and to thrive. We believe that every worker — Black, white, brown, Asian Pacific Islander — deserves the support and protections to keep themselves, their families and their communities safe. We believe that by demanding a seat at the table for every nursing home worker and holding corporations and elected leaders accountable, we can transform the work we do and ensure the highest quality of care.

These are our demands: 

  1. Racial and economic justice for all workers — Black, brown, white Asian Pacific Islander and immigrant nursing home workers — so that regardless of the color of our skin or where we come from, we can all care for ourselves and our own families.
  2. Unions for all nursing home workers so that we have a voice in delivering care and can make these low-paying, dangerous jobs into good jobs. United in our union, we can negotiate better wages, benefits and protections standards for all nursing home workers.
  3. Frontline workers should have a voice at state tables to establish health, safety and employment standards across the industry. This means stronger state regulations to hold nursing home corporations accountable for health and safety violations,  targeted PPE distribution, accountability for federal relief dollars
  4. A clear, specific plan to address the racial disparities in care for Black and Brown residents that COVID-19 has exposed.
  5. The personal protective equipment (PPE) we need to keep ourselves, residents and our communities safe, including: gloves, face shields or goggles, and protective clothing and N-95 respirators where needed.
  6. Paid sick days, double-time hazard pay, and free COVID-19 testing and treatment for all nursing home workers so that no one is forced to go to work sick and risk spreading illness.
  7. Family-sustaining wages and affordable healthcare, so that we can live healthy lives without fear of missing a bill payment or ending up in the emergency room because we can’t afford to see a doctor.
  8. Enough staff to keep workers and residents safe and provide the highest quality care. All residents — Black, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander or white — deserve the best care possible.
  9. The end of legal protections for nursing home corporations and employers who have failed to protect all nursing home workers and residents so that every employer can be held accountable to nursing home workers, residents and family members, and taxpayers.
  10. Sufficient funding for nursing homes, with clear requirements that state and federal funding goes to resident care, not corporate profits.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) unites 2 million diverse members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, including more than 75,000 nursing home workers. SEIU members working in the healthcare industry, in the public sector and in property services believe in the power of joining together on the job to win higher wages and benefits and to create better communities while fighting for a more just society and an economy that works for all of us, not just corporations and the wealthy.

 

Protect All Workers

Workers at the forefront of the coronavirus pandemic launched Protect All Workers, a demand calling on leading industries — from airlines to hospitals to fast-food and beyond — to take immediate, sweeping, and concrete actions to protect the health, safety and financial security of all workers in America. Backed by the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and workers in the Fight for $15 and a Union, Protect All Workers is mobilizing thousands of working people to pressure corporate leaders and elected officials to protect all workers amid the global pandemic and economic crisis.

 

COVID-19 spikes at nursing home where workers complained about safety concerns

WINK TV News: June 26, 2020 Reporter Lauren Sweeney

A nursing home where workers complained of a lack of PPE and information about coronavirus currently has more COVID-19 positive residents than any other facility in Southwest Florida.

According to Florida Department of Health data released Thursday, there are 34 COVID-19 positive residents at Heritage Park Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Fort Myers.

It’s not known the condition of these residents, or whether or not any of them are asymptomatic. Nursing homes are required to test 100% of all residents and staff.

Consulate Healthcare, which runs the facility, did not respond to WINK News regarding the spike in cases.

In May, the United Healthcare Workers union filed complaints with Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration and the Occupational Safety Hazard Administration after nursing assistants at the facility expressed fears about coming to work.

A spokesperson for the union said the facility began providing more personal protective equipment after WINK News reported on the worker concerns in May.

According to the most recent data, 15 workers from the facility have tested positive for the virus. The union spokesperson said several of them are currently quarantined at home.

Caregivers Honored Patients & Staff Struck Down by COVID-19

LTC Vigil 15, 6-18- 20TAMPA—Dozens of long-term care workers and members of the state’s largest healthcare union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, held a vigil in Tampa recently to mourn the deaths of more than 1,500 nursing home patients and caregivers – as well as all victims – related to the Covid-19 coronavirus, and to protest the lack of leadership during the crisis from Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.
Nursing home patients and caregivers make up more than half of the 3,000 total Covid-related deaths in Florida.

One by one, caregivers and union officials placed 3,000 flowers – representing each death —  on a temporary memorial outside of Rubio’s and Scott’s offices at the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse in Tampa.  They were  joined by community leaders from organizations such as Organize Florida and other groups..

“Our seniors and their caregivers in nursing homes have suffered dramatically and disproportionately from Covid-19,” said  Pearl Gooden, a certified nursing assistant in Tampa.. “Senators Rubio and Scott and their bosses in Washington have been absent in solving this crisis so far, and it’s time they step up.”

Congress Investigates Owner of LTC Facilities After COVD-19 Deaths

WUSF News:  By  &  • JUN 22, 2020

More than a third of COVID-19 deaths in the United States so far happened at nursing homes.

Now Congress is demanding answers from five of the companies that run them, including one with 69 facilities in Florida.

Consulate Health Care is one of the largest for-profit nursing home chains in the United States. It’s also one of the five that received a letter June 16 from House Majority Whip James Clyburn, who chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, demanding documents on infection control and virus preparedness.

CREDIT DATA FROM THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

There have been at least 61 deaths and 246 cases among residents at Consulate Health Care’s 69 locations in Florida, according to data from the state Department of Health.

Another 101 Consulate employees have tested positive for the virus.

Nearly half of the deaths happened at facilities in Brandon, Lakeland, and Bradenton.

Clyburn’s letter outlined what he called the long-term care industry’s “widespread and persistent” pattern of deficiencies that include chronic understaffing, low wages, lack of paid sick leave, improper hand hygiene and poor disease prevention practices – all of which have contributed to the crisis.

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found “most nursing homes ha[d] an infection prevention and control deficiency cited in one or more years from 2013 through 2017 (13,299 nursing homes, or 82 percent of all surveyed homes)” such as staff who “did not regularly use proper hand hygiene or failed to implement preventive measures during an infection disease outbreak.”

The report warned, “Many of these practices can be critical to preventing the spread of infectious diseases, including COVID-19.”

Consulate Healthcare Facilities, and data on the number of coronavirus cases.
CREDIT DATA FROM THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Clyburn’s letter also says a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services inspection found that some nursing homes had severe deficiencies in infection control that placed residents’ health and safety in “immediate jeopardy,” including staff members who failed to wash their hands, wear masks, or follow isolation protocols.

The letter asks Consulate to provide a variety of documents to the task force by June 30, covering January 1, 2020 to the present.

These include records on the number of beds; how those beds are paid for; demographic information of residents; wages and paid time off for employees; a breakdown of available personal protective equipment and its use; suspected number of coronavirus infections and deaths; and complaints made about the company.

Similar letters with the same demands were sent to chief executive officers of Genesis HealthCare, Life Care Centers of America, Ensign Group, and SavaSeniorCareSava.

On Monday afternoon, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., and other members of the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Aging and Families held an online roundtable discussion on Facebook about the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes.

Deutch stressed that just because the recent rise in Florida cases appears to be residents in their 20s and 30s, doesn’t mean the work to protect the elderly is over.

“We can’t give up preventing outbreaks because it’s mostly younger people, as the governor pointed out, and expect Floridians and nursing homes will be okay because they’re locked away. That’s not acceptable. It’s not what aging in America should look like.”

Deutch said in the 100 days since Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered nursing homes to close to visitors, the state has failed to come up with a long-term, comprehensive plan for the virus.

“Instead, he blamed farmworkers with racially charged rhetoric; he blamed young people. He blamed the media. And it is the most vulnerable Floridians who are paying the price,” Deutch said. “Residents and staff at long-term care facilities account for more than half of the reported deaths in our state.”

1199SEIU Facilitates Donation of 20,000 KN95 Masks

LTC KN95 Mask Delivery, Sophia Colley, Titusville 5-1-2020Miramar—In the midst of a widespread shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), the state’s largest healthcare union has facilitated a donation of 20,000 KN95 masks that will be distributed to long-term care facilities across the state.

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which represents 25,000 healthcare workers across Florida, arranged the donation from GreaterGood, a charitable organization that supports a wide variety of causes and programs that help refugees, veterans, students, wildlife and protect our planet.

“This donation comes at a critical time, when many nursing homes across the state are seeing the number of COVID-19 cases increase at alarming rates,” said Dale Ewart, executive vice president of 1199SEIU. “The KN95 masks will help protect thousands of dedicated caregivers who are putting themselves at risk every day to care for our elderly and vulnerable loved ones in nursing homes.

According to the state, more than 2,200 nursing home residents and 1,100 caregivers have tested positive for the life-threatening disease.

The KN95 masks offer as much protection as surgical masks or slightly better, but they are not a suitable replacement for N95 masks—the recommended method of protection according to the CDC. The KN95 masks will help supplement limited supplies of PPE that have forced some caregivers to use the same surgical mask repeatedly over several days or in some cases several weeks.

“Protecting healthcare workers has always been our priority,” said Ewart. “Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have called on federal and state officials to replenish dwindling supplies of PPE. But the response has been slow and inadequate, so we sought out other solutions. GreaterGood stepped in and truly lived up to its name with this generous donation that will benefit thousands of caregivers and their patients across the state.”

1199SEIU continues to search for additional donations. The first delivery of masks will go out today (May 1) at numerous Florida LTC facilities. Over the next week, they will be distributed to a total of 73 nursing homes.

 

Consulate Nursing Home Named in OSHA, AHCA Complaints for Putting Patients, Caregivers at “High-Risk” of COVID-19 Infection

FORT MYERS—Florida’s largest healthcare union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, has filed official complaints with federal and state agencies against Consulate Heritage Park Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Fort Myers for a “blatant disregard” of Covid-19 safety practices, putting the facility’s caregivers and patients at “high risk” of the deadly virus.

Serious shortages of masks, gloves, gowns and other personal protective equipment (PPE) continue to be widespread at Florida nursing homes during the Covid-19 crisis, but the OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) and AHCA (Agency for Health Care Administration) complaints against Consulate Heritage Park are the first filed by 1199SEIU in the state due to the severity of the conditions at the 120-bed facility, according to union officials.

“We’ve been imploring state officials and nursing homes throughout this crisis to improve supplies and policies that better protect caregivers and their patients against this dangerous virus,” said Dale Ewart, executive vice president and Florida regional director for 1199SEIU. “But the problems reported by our members and the lack of cooperation by management at this facility brought us to this point of alerting OSHA and AHCA.”

So far, two patients tested positive and one has died related to Covid-19 at Consulate Heritage Park, according to state reports. At least one worker is quarantined due to possible exposure, the union reports.

However, a lack of comprehensive testing makes the true number of Covid infections at the facility unknown, said RN Betsy Marville, who filed the complaints on behalf of workers and 1199SEIU.

Caregivers help feed, bathe, dress and other close-contact essential needs for elderly patients most vulnerable to the virus, yet they lack basic PPE, according to the OSHA and AHCA complaints. Among numerous issues, the filings to OSHA and AHCA state:

• Healthcare providers are entering rooms where droplet isolation cards are posted, but there is no PPE available, including face shields/goggles, masks, gloves, and gowns.

• CNAs who are directly caring for residents who are on isolation are denied knowledge of why the isolation has been initiated, including for patients who are Covid-positive or suspected of being Covid-positive.

• Workers were provided only one face mask and told to make it last “forever,” when such equipment is medically designed for disposable one-time use.

• Until the state published a list of facilities with confirmed Covid cases, direct caregivers were unaware they were working with Covid-positive patients.

• While workers were denied PPE, Consulate Heritage Park management reported to state officials that the facility had adequate supplies.

The OSHA and AHCA complaints also cite “fear, intimidation, and divisiveness” from Consulate Heritage Park management to prevent staff from reporting dangerous working conditions.

The facility is operated by Consulate Health Care, one of the largest long-term companies in the nation with dozens of locations across Florida.

“We’re talking about possible life and death consequences for residents and staff each time a caregiver walks into a room without proper protections. Workers are scared for their patients, themselves and their own families,” said Clara Smith, 1199SEIU regional director in Southwest Florida. “There’s more fear than I’ve ever seen during 40 years in this field.”

1199SEIU Florida Press Release: May 12, 2020

Contact: Ed Gilhuly | 305-807-6906 | egilhuly@leftcom.com

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1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest healthcare union in the country represent*ing more than 450,000 nurses and healthcare workers nationwide, including more than 24,000 in Florida. Our nurses, certified nursing assistants and other healthcare workers care for Florida families in hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities throughout the state.

Union claims FL nursing homes putting worker, patient lives at risk

WINK TV News: A certified nursing assistant at Heritage Park Rehabilitation and Healthcare, who only wanted to be identified by the name “Julie”, said management hid cases of COVID-19 from staff and failed to provide proper protective equipment. She provided proof of employment at the facility to WINK News, but said she feared she would be fired if management knew she was speaking out.

The problems are laid out in complaints filed in early May with the Occupational Safety Health Administration and Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration. The United Healthcare Workers Union East filed the complaints on behalf of members at the facility.

“The goal is to give workers proper PPE. The goal is to protect the patient, to protect the workers, protect the community,” said Margarette Nerette, a vice president with the union.

Nerette said workers at the Fort Myers facility contacted their union representative after finding out about positive COVID-19 cases on the Florida Department of Health website.

“Julie” claimed the executive director told staff there were no cases of the virus, but on April 22, staff located data online that indicated there were cases.

According to the state’s long-term care facility COVID-19 tracking, Heritage Park has had two residents and two staff members test positive for the coronavirus.

In its complaints to state and federal regulators, the union said, “the administration of the facility is violating AHCA directives, CDC guidelines and OSHA regulations for the safety of its healthcare providers caring for COVID-19 positive, suspected COVID-19 residents, and all residents requiring hands-on care,”

The complaint also alleges that staff is entering isolation rooms but not being provided PPE, such as face shields/goggles and not being informed why the patients are isolated.

“Julie” said she has had to use a patient’s nightgown as protection and purchased her own protective gear.

Nerette said the union has filed similar complaints against facilities across the state of Florida, but was not able to provide specific numbers or locations of those complaints.

The executive director for Heritage Park said she was very aware of the OSHA and ACHA complaints but could not comment. She provided a phone number for the corporate communications person for Consulate Health Care, the company that owns the facility.

As of publication, no one from Consulate Health Care has returned calls from WINK News.

This story appeared on WINK News on May 29, 2020.

New Report Finds Some Consulate Nursing Homes Violating State’s Staffing Law

Consulate Health Care is a fast-growing, large nursing home chain with 151.7% increase in revenues since 2010iii. However, the data shows Consulate failed to comply with the state’s minimum staffing standards in 16% of its facilities for the first quarter of 2013. The use of antipsychotic medications at Consulate nursing homes was above average in all but one of the homes for the first quarter of 2013. These are serious issues that have an impact on the quality of life for nursing home residents that need immediate intervention.

Click here to read the full report.

Every Minute Counts Campaign Update 2.24.12

Throughout the 2012 Florida legislative session, caregivers, concerned citizens and families with loved ones in a nursing home have been taking action in Tallahassee and across the state to restore the 18 minutes per day of bedside care that was cut for each nursing home resident last year.

Here are some of the milestones of the Every Minute Counts campaign in our effort to protect nursing home residents from life-threatening cuts to bedside care:

  • Over 10,000 people have visited our website EveryMinuteCountsFlorida.org to learn how they can protect their loved one in a nursing home.
  • Over 6,700 Floridians across the state have taken action and signed our Every Minute Counts online petition and pledge cards.
  • Caregivers have visited over 150 legislative offices in Tallahassee and around the state to educate lawmakers on the importance of safe staffing and ask for their support for legislation (SB1332 / HB569) sponsored by Senator Mike Fasano and Representative Mia Jones.
  • The Every Minute Counts Campaign and safe staffing issue has received coverage on over 25 local, state and national television, print, radio and online media outlets.

Throughout the remainder of the 2012 legislative session, the Every Minute Counts campaign will continue raising awareness and pressuring lawmakers to do the right thing by restoring safe staffing and bedside care in nursing homes.

Every Minute Counts Lobby Day: Florida Nursing Home Workers Speak up for Quality Care

The budget cuts to bedside care in Florida’s nursing homes, passed last year, have impacted thousands of nursing homes residents and nursing home workers. Staffing levels were reduced from a minimum weekly average of 2.9 hours of care per resident per day to 2.5 hours, which shortens the amount of time caregivers spend with residents by 18 minutes per day.

The budget cuts also forced more than 2,650 health care workers into unemployment. On January 18, during the second week of the 2012 legislative session, 1199SEIU Florida members took matters into their own hands and traveled to the state capital in Tallahassee to urge lawmakers to restore safe staffing levels in Florida.

“When we learned the state rolled-back minimum safe staffing levels, we felt like our wings were clipped and wondered how are we going to take care of people’s loved ones in the best way possible,” said Doreen Holm, a CNA of 23 years who works at Avanté Nursing Home in Palm Beach.

To encourage the passage of the safe staffing legislation, 1199SEIU members walked the halls of the Capitol and educated lawmakers on the life-threatening impact these cuts are having on Florida’s seniors. They delivered booklets filled with 18 stories to signify the 18 minutes of lost care per day and ask for quality healthcare to be a top priority. Members also asked Governor Rick Scott to “work-a-day” with them in a Florida nursing home so he can see first-hand what the steep budget cuts are doing to Florida’s elders.

“Because of these cuts, basic, simple needs that the rest of us take for granted everyday are not being met,” said Jean Berg, 32-year veteran nursing home worker and Pasco County CNA. “If they get their teeth brushed, it’s a good day. As caregivers, we are put in a terrible position of having to prioritize and the most pressing situations come first – which leaves others at risk of falling out of their beds and not being fed on time. Lawmakers must take this seriously and do the right thing for our elders!”

The Florida Channel, a statewide public television network covering Florida politics and the legislative session, extensively covered the 1199SEIU FL Lobby Day events. Their story included interviews with nursing home workers and both of the bill sponsors as well as clips of the members delivering packets and educating lawmakers. (7:06 is where the coverage begins)