California Nurses, Catholic Healthcare West Set Benchmark for Containing Pandemics

by Mike Hall, Nov 2, 2009

A new agreement between the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and Catholic Healthcare West sets a national benchmark for containing the spread of pandemics such as H1N1 (swine flu) and protecting patients and workers. Says CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro:

With this historic agreement, we are charting a new course for limiting the spread of not only swine flu but all other dangerous pandemics that are yet to come, We are pleased that Catholic Healthcare West is joining with us to set the highest possible hospital safeguards for patients and nurses and creating an innovative model that every hospital in America should follow.

The agreement creates a new system-wide emergency task force, comprised of CNA/NNOC RNs and hospital representatives following the declaration of pandemic emergencies.

The task force will monitor system-wide preparedness and set uniform standards on full implementation of federal, state and local guidelines, availability of the property safety protective equipment, communication and training policies for all hospital personnel and other needed steps, such as consideration of off-site emergency triage and treatment.

Carol Koelle, RN, at St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernardino, says the agreement goes a long way

to making our hospitals safer and better prepared for containing the spread of H1N1 and stop the unnecessary exposure of fragile patients, their family members, or nurses and other staff to the virus.

In addition to the H1N1 standards, CNA/NNOC and the hospital chain settled other outstanding issues, including assuring adherence to safe staffing standards, reducing the assignment of RNs to areas outside their clinical expertise or orientation and preventing management’s proposed reduction in nurses’ health care coverage.

The settlement, which averted a strike that had been set for Oct. 30, covers 13,000 registered nurses in 32 Catholic Healthcare West facilities in California and Nevada. Talks covering pandemic standards and patient and worker safety are continuing at two other California hospital chains where some 3,000 CNA/NNOC RNs work.

For information on H1N1 and teachers and students, visit AFT’s special H1N1 Web section. Also AFSCME has an extensive H1N1 site that includes fact sheets, a resource page and other information. Also see the United American Nurses (UAN) for more information on the H1N1 vaccine and health care  workers.

Don’t forget to check out the AFL-CIO’s pandemic flu site, which includes vital resources for health care workers, firefighters, educators and more. For even more information, go to www.flu.gov.

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