Security officers call for better COVID-19 protections at St. Mary’s and Dignity Health hospitals
Long Beach CA May 15 2021
St. Mary Medical Center did not provide its security officers with adequate protection against the spread of the coronavirus, said a complaint filed this week with the state’s worker safety agency against Dignity Health, the Long Beach facility’s operator.
Dignity Health has denied the allegations.
But the Long Beach workers and security officers from other Dignity Health hospitals gathered outside St. Mary’s on Thursday, May 13, to call on the health care behemoth to improve working conditions at its medical facilities across California. The workers said the experiences the Long Beach officers faced were not exclusive to St. Mary’s.
But Scott Fuller, Dignity Health’s vice president for employee and labor relations, said protecting workers is paramount.
“We have prioritized keeping our employees safe and have rededicated ourselves to staff safety during the pandemic,” Fuller said in a statement, “offering appropriate PPE and every support resource we can during the last year.”
The Service Employees International Union-United Health Care Workers West filed the complaint with the state on behalf of the Long Beach workers, who are not currently unionized, on Wednesday, May 12.
The complaint, which has been reviewed by this news organization, said that 12 out of St. Mary’s 24 security personnel contracted COVID-19, with one being hospitalized, from August to February. A lack of protections from Dignity Health, the complaint said, may have contributed to the spread.
The document, written by the union’s research analyst, Matan Diner, argued that Dignity Health failed to:
Adequately respond to coronavirus exposures;
Provide security officers with appropriate personal protective equipment, like N95 respirator masks;
Consistently conduct temperature screenings for people entering the facility during the night shift; and
Adequately train security personnel on COVID-19 protocols.
“It is highly likely that security personnel had continuously high levels of exposure,” Diner wrote, “without actively having been made aware.
“Furthermore, the fact that for an approximately 5 to 6-month period, certain security personnel did not report to work due to COVID-19 infections,” Diner added, “indicates that the hospital was aware that this was an occupational hazard faced by the security personnel, that the security personnel were not notified about.”
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, also known as Cal/OSHA, did not respond to a request for comment on how long it may take to investigate the allegations in the complaint, which was filed Wednesday.
But Deonne Youngblood, a security officer at Community Hospital of San Bernardino, one of six Southern California medical facilities run by Dignity Health, said at a briefing outside St. Mary Medical Center on Thursday that her counterparts in Long Beach were not alone.
“We are the first line of defense for patients and workers, but that has meant we are also the first to interact with COVID-positive patients,” she said. “However, Dignity Health has not taken our own safety seriously, putting the whole hospital at risk of unnecessary COVID spread.”
Fuller, though, said Dignity Health takes employee concerns seriously.
“We are an equal opportunity employer that works hard to create a culture that is welcoming, inclusive and safe,” he said, “and we will continue to thoroughly review any concerns raised by our employees.”
As part of their fight for better protections, the security officers are also trying to unionize with the SEIU-UHW, which has more than 100,000 members nationwide and already represents other health care workers at Dignity Health facilities.
Fuller, in his statement, acknowledged the important role security officers play and said Dignity Health, the largest health care provider in California, does its best to support all employees.
“The more than 550 members of our safety teams are critical to our mission of providing care to those in need across the state,” he said. “Every day they perform a tough job with grace and compassion.
“Supporting our employees is one of our core values,” Fuller added. “Even as many organizations contract for security, in recent years we have brought these employees entirely in-house and the vast majority receive full benefits.”
But Long Beach Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, who attended Thursday’s briefing, said he supported the security workers in their effort.
“If you expect security officers to protect you, to make sure that you feel safe and secure, the simple question is: Do security officers deserve to feel safe and secure and have dignity in the workplace?” Richardson said. “That is the question, and without any equivocation, I have to say: Absolutely. Give these workers a union.”
