Tacoma hospital’s COVID-19 probe grows with 18 cases now reported; testing expands
St. Joseph Medical Center on Friday announced the number of COVID-19 cases among staff and patients at the Tacoma hospital has grown to 18.
Four new cases come after an initial cluster first reported on the hospital’s seventh floor, where now 10 employees and four patients have tested positive. The initial outbreak was first reported Oct. 22. At that time, two patients and one worker were reported to be infected.
The hospital on Friday announced the four new cases among staff separate from the seventh floor, and at the recommendation of Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and CDC guidelines, it’s now going through a second round of testing of all staff on the fourth floor of the South Pavilion and fifth floor of the North Tower.
“Initial cases in the outbreak were centered on the seventh floor where 106 employees work. The hospital cast a very wide net, well beyond those employees, and tested over 1,160 total employees to root out any infections. All results from this first round of testing have been received,” the hospital said in a Friday news release.
The hospital noted that because such a wide net was cast, the tests are considered “surveillance testing,” which it says is recommended by the health department.
“With this type of testing, there is no known exposure, so employees are allowed to continue working per health department directives. We have investigated each positive patient and staff member to identify any staff who may have been exposed and must leave work per CDC guidelines,” the hospital said Friday.
Jayson Dick is Washington State Nurses Association’s associate director of labor advocacy. He told The News Tribune in an interview Friday that as the number of cases were growing, “I’ve got to challenge them to rethink that position.”
“We know things grow. We’re seeing things escalate. We have seen in other CHI Franciscan facilities where, such as St Michael’s, how quickly a COVID-19 outbreak in a hospital can spread out of control quickly,” Dick said.
St. Michael Medical Center in Kitsap County saw a large COVID-19 outbreak in August, and union officials at that time warned outbreaks similar to that one were a threat to all facilities without swift containment.
The hospital said that it has tightened visitor restrictions throughout St. Joseph Medical Center,“ with a few exceptions for beginning of life and end of life. Some currently scheduled in-patient procedures may be postponed if it is medically safe to do so.”
All patients are tested before any admittance, and employees and visitors are screened upon entering. All of the patients tested negative initially, then later tested positive, according to the hospital.
The hospital’s chief operating officer, Timothy O’Haver, warned Friday that the St. Joseph outbreak was a reflection of community spread countywide.
“COVID-19 is significantly spiking in Pierce County, and health care facilities are not immune to community spread,” O’Haver said.
“The first line of defense to protect our hospitals starts in the community with masks, social distancing, and quarantining if you have COVID-19. Hospital screenings, universal masking, and PPE are our additional lines of defense at the hospital. It will take all of us, working together, to do our part and put up every barrier possible to curb the spread of this virus.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 5:59 PM.
