Fallout from COVID-19 policies continue as hospitals nationwide struggle to maintain a workforce. Nurse and healthcare worker unions and advocacy organizations blame hospital policies and reduced pay for the worker shortages. OSHA moved to revoke Arizona’s state plan after ongoing violations of federal policy to enforce worker protections throughout the pandemic.
In Arizona, there were 2,377 new cases of COVID-19 last week and 29 new deaths related to the pandemic, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services COVID-19 data dashboard. The dashboard no longer reports hospital capacity or bed use and availability.
The Biden administration will no longer enforce a federal mask mandate on public transportation following a ruling by a federal judge in Florida that the 14-month old directive was unlawful. All major carriers including American Airlines, Delta and the national train line Amtrak relaxed the restrictions effective immediately. According to Reuters, the mandate was extended for another month just last week, and federal officials said that more time was needed to assess the impact of a recent rise in COVID-19 cases.
Workplace Concerns
On Wednesday, April 20, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a proposal to consider and revoke the final approval of Arizona’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) plan following the state’s failure to maintain its commitment to provide worker safety and health protections as the OSH Act requires. The Department cites Arizona’s inadequate measures to meet the COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard.
Arizona elected to formulate a state plan, which must be OSHA-approved and monitored while OSHA provides up to 50% of the state program’s funding. If OSHA decides to revoke the Arizona state plan, the agency will reinstate federal authority over the issues covered by the plan. Comments on the proposal will be open until May 26.
A Labor Office of Inspector General (OIG) report says that OSHA itself took few steps to address possible COVID-19 dangers to workers at other federal agencies during the pandemic, finding that it “neither tracked nor analyzed” data that could have informed workplace protections. According to Inside Health Policy, the report looks at the way in which OSHA approached worker protections despite a cut in inspections due to the pandemic and the office’s long-term decline in its workforce.
Arizona hospitals are still struggling to find workers and retain workers in both rural and urban areas. In an interview with KJZZ, Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association president and CEO Ann-Marie Alameddin said that hospitals are even having difficulty finding environmental services staff:
So, environmental services are the critical people in a hospital that clean the rooms; they are the front line when it comes to infection control and prevention. And so to have shortages in those kinds of areas, so that it shortens the amount of time that you can turn over a room when one patient is discharged to admitting another patient.
The California Nurses Association and its affiliate Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union coordinated a 24-hour strike last week. The walkout included 8,500 nurses and technicians at the Sutter Roseville Medical Center and 14 other locations operated by the system in Sacramento. The union has reached a standoff in contract negotiations over staffing and pandemic preparedness, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it would award $5.1 million in Emergency Rural Health Care Grants to 12 rural health care organizations and community groups in Arizona. The funding is available through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and will assist rural hospitals and providers implement telehealth and nutrition assistance programs, increase staffing and purchase supplies.
Physician pay is on the upswing as patients are returning to the doctor in larger numbers than during the COVID-19 pandemic. A physician compensation report demonstrated that 70% of doctors reporting lower pay attributed decreases to pandemic-related factors like job loss, reduction of hours or reduced patient volume. According to Healthcare Dive, in the first year of the pandemic, 92% of physicians said that the public health emergency had a negative impact on their income.
National News
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have launched a new forecasting center to provide warning for future pandemics. The Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analysis launched Tuesday and will rectify many of the data collection problems brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic. PBS Newshour reports that the $200 million in funding for the Center came from the American Rescue Plan Act and the center has already awarded $21 million to academic institutions to develop modeling and forecasting methods.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the first COVID-19 breath test, the InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer, which is expected to be the first of several of its kind, according to the New York Times. However, this particular device is large, can only be used by trained operators, can only process 20 samples per hour and has no established pricing plans. Due to the proliferation of small, over-the-counter rapid tests, its utility has yet to be determined.
Arizona News
Last week, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the COVID-19 emergency declaration for an additional 90 days, thus extending Medicaid to enrollees who may not qualify after an eligibility review. Cronkite News reports that when the emergency authorization ends, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System will begin disenrollment, which could have major impacts on the landscape of Arizona healthcare. From Dr. Shad Fani Marvasti, director of Public Health, Prevention and Health Promotion at the University of Arizona:
COVID has already shown us the vulnerabilities and the shortcomings of our system, which have been particularly painful for those who are the most underserved and vulnerable. Dis-enrolling Medicaid is going to impact those folks in a really dire way.
Listen: The Arizona Republic podcast Valley 101 takes an in-depth look at the journey Arizona has made following the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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