A courageous group of nurses blasted a hospital in a small Pennsylvania city for risking the lives of cancer patients and babies with the coronavirus.
They said staffers who complained to bosses about the dangerous conditions at Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton, where poorly-protected nurses shuttled between those with COVID-19 and vulnerable cancer patients and preemies, were often disciplined, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
One pregnant nurse worried about her own baby as well as the newborn infants in the hospital. She claimed she was sent back and forth between the “COVID floor” and the neonatal intensive care unit. Because of the protective gear shortage, she only received an N95 mask after a patient tested positive for the virus.
Moses Taylor, like many Community Health Systems hospitals, wasn’t prepared for the flood of contagious patients at the start of the coronavirus crisis, the nurses said.
With 99 hospitals in 17 states, CHS is one of the largest for-profit health companies in the US.
CHS chief executive Wayne Smith’s total compensation has ballooned in recent years to $8 million.