ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Holding candles and standing six feet apart, dozens of Sutter Roseville Medical Center nurses held a candlelight vigil in front of the hospital on Wednesday calling attention to what they say are poor working conditions at the hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.
The display was a show of solidarity for nurses who work at the hospital and are now demanding changes in policy when dealing with coronavirus patients.
"You can't prepare 100% for everything, but they definitely could have done a whole lot more than what they did," said Renee Altaffer who has worked as a critical care nurse at the hospital for 24 years.
The California Nurses Association, which represents more than 1,300 nurses at the Roseville hospital, laid out its demands in a March letter to the Sutter Roseville Hospital CEO Brian Alexander.
Those demands included ensuring state standards are followed when caring for coronavirus patients, adequate staffing and resources, eligibility for workers compensation for nurses who test positive for the virus, and for all nurses to be fit with N95 masks.
At least 127 healthcare workers across the state have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Altaffer says nurses at the hospital have been warning administration for years that they should prepare for a potential pandemic. She says the inadequate availability of personal protective equipment and hospital policy is a risk to patients and staff health and safety.
"They're having us use the same masks between patients and using single-use masks up to five times or more," Altaffer said.
A Sutter Health spokesperson said in a statement to ABC10 that the administration values the work that the hospital's nurses are doing during these challenging times.
However, they're "disappointed" that the union would take action during the coronavirus pandemic, "a time we should all be focusing our attention on the patients who need us."
"Tonight's vigil is unnecessarily frightening for our already nervous patients and staff while failing to provide any constructive solutions to the challenges everyone in healthcare is facing," the statement said.
Hospital officials went on to say they have disease tracing processes in place that are designed to comply with state standards.
The hospital said it has followed infection protocols and implemented new strategies to reduce the risk of exposure, including separating suspected and positive COVID-19 patients, providing healthcare workers with masks and implementing mandatory temperature screenings for all employees.
A Sutter Health spokesperson also wrote that while they are not currently experiencing a staffing shortage at the hospital, they are currently retraining employees and have plans to bring in additional staff as needed.
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