WALNUT CREEK, CA – MARCH 23: Nurses line up to protest outside the Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Sunday, March 22, 2020. California Nurses Association held a rally today to protest the lack of coronavirus supplies at the hospital. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
California cited two Kaiser Permanente medical centers in the Bay Area last month for coronavirus-related violations over the last half year or so.
The health care giant’s Walnut Creek facility was cited by Cal/OSHA on Jan. 22 and faces a $45,000 fine, in part for allegedly failing to investigate and notify employees who had been exposed to the deadly disease. And its San Leandro medical center was cited on Jan. 4 in part for allegedly requiring employees to use respirators with defective face shields and cracked helmets. The total proposed fine for that center is $87,500.
In a statement, Kaiser said, “It’s misleading to interpret these citations to signal any ongoing serious infractions of current public health guidelines at Kaiser Permanente. In fact, these citations stem mainly from allegations much earlier in the pandemic, as health care systems including ours grappled with national shortages and evolving public health guidance.”
It’s not the first time Kaiser has been written up by the state’s workplace safety agency for violations, and assessed penalties. Its San Jose medical center was cited and fined more than $85,000 in November, and its Antioch location was hit with a $56,000 penalty in December.
“Each of these citations is in the process of being appealed by Kaiser Permanente and are not considered final determinations,” Kaiser said. “Unequivocally, our medical centers are safe places to work and receive care.”
Dozens of other businesses and agencies have been cited and fined by the state for violations related to preventing the spread of the coronavirus, including, recently, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, a Marriott hotel in Fairfield, a nursing home in Fremont, an assisted living facility in Santa Clara and the Draeger’s Market in Los Altos.
But Kaiser, which was tapped by Gov. Gavin Newsom to help streamline and speed up the state’s vaccine rollout, has been hit with some of the largest fines. The HMO has come under intense scrutiny for its handling of a Christmas outbreak — involving an employee in an air-powered inflatable tree costume that may have helped spread the virus — at its San Jose emergency department that infected dozens and left one employee dead. That incident prompted a separate fine from Santa Clara County for allegedly failing to report the outbreak in a timely manner, an accusation the hospital has disputed.
At the Walnut Creek medical center, the state alleges that Kaiser failed to properly screen people entering the facility for signs of COVID-19, didn’t ensure that the correct respirators were used during risky procedures to insert or remove tubes that help patients breathe, failed to notify employees who had been exposed to the virus, and failed to provide proper training to employees on the way the virus is transmitted and the limitations of different types of protective gear.
“It is a validation of what we’ve already been saying,” said Jill Leon, a nurse at Kaiser’s Walnut Creek facility who has worked with coronavirus patients and said she was exposed without being notified. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we brought our concerns up. We were not listened to.”
In San Leandro, according to the state, Kaiser didn’t limit the re-use of N95 masks, so employees took them on and off repeatedly during a single shift. The state alleges the HMO made employees use broken protective gear, in some cases held together by tape, and didn’t ensure employees used the correct respirators when doing high-risk procedures. The center also failed to notify employees who had been exposed to the virus, failed to provide adequate training and didn’t report the hospitalization of an employee with the virus in the spring.
In its statement, Kaiser suggested advocacy groups were behind some of the complaints as part of an attempt to change regulatory guidance, saying, “filing complaints against Kaiser Permanente provided high visibility for these efforts.”
“From the very beginning of the pandemic, our people have been doing everything possible to make sure Kaiser Permanente facilities remain safe places to work and receive high quality care,” the health care giant said. “We are very proud of our success in protecting our workforce, members and patients from infection during this pandemic.”
