Public Employee Press

Public workers tackle Ebola threat

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

New York is Ebola-free since Dr. Craig Spencer's Nov. 11 release from Bellevue Hospital. His successful recovery from the deadly virus is thanks to dedicated public health-care workers who volunteered as frontline protectors - and the coalition of unions, including DC 37, advocating for them.

The first Ebola case was only an international flight away, so months ago the de Blasio administration began training an elite corps of Bellevue Hospital health-care workers in the Ebola protocol of the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Police and Emergency workers at Bellevue in Locals 371, 420 and 1549 prepped to assess and isolate anyone suspected of having the disease. The Health and Hospitals Corp. and the Office of Chief Medical Examiner drilled Medical Legal Investigators in Local 768 and Local 420 Morgue Techs in handling and transporting deceased Ebola victims.

Dispatched by Police 911 Operators in Local 1549, a special team of DC 37 Emergency Medical Techs in Local 2507 and their supervisors in Local 3621 transported Spencer in an FDNY Haztac truck to Bellevue, one of six hospitals in the state designated to diagnose and treat possible Ebola patients.

Early detection and isolation is critical, and the Ebola team rushed him to the seventh floor isolation ward. EMTs and their supervisors decontaminated the emergency vehicles used to transport suspected Ebola cases.

Following CDC protocol, Local 375 Assistant Associate Chemists analyzed the patient's specimens daily and sent them to CDC.

Members' advocates

Unions representing Ebola first responders met with HHC management, the Police and Fire departments, the Human Resources Administration, state and city health officials and city commissioners to establish a preparedness plan and ensure that workers got updated training and protective gear. DC 37's team was led by Field Operations Director Barbara Edmonds, Safety and Health Dept. Director Guille Mejia and Research and Negotiations Associate Director David Paskin and included division directors, local presidents and reps.

There is no cure or antidote for Ebola, which has so far killed 4,800 of the 10,000 patients diagnosed in 2014, according to the World Health Organization. The best preventative of transmission, health experts agree, is frequent and thorough hand washing with soap and hot water and decontamination with industrial strength bleach.

Ebola is not airborne and can only be contracted from contact with symptomatic persons, their fluids (blood, saliva, vomit and diarrhea), or a victim's corpse. Public hospital emergency room staff and 911 Operators are trained to ask walk-ins and callers with symptoms of Ebola the following the three markers identified by CDC and the city Health Dept.:

1) Recent travel to Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia, or contact with someone who traveled there;
2) fever of 100.4 degrees or higher,
3) and body aches, diarrhea, vomiting and/or bleeding.

If the answers are yes, a special team of EMTs transports the patient to Bellevue for isolation, diagnosis and treatment, that includes fluids, plasma transfusions and an experimental antiviral drug.

HHC management held onsite town hall meetings at Bellevue to address workers' concerns and share information on transmission, training and assignments. The meetings helped identify real concerns, Mejia said, including mistrust of government handling of disasters and emergencies, and helped dispel media-fueled fears and hysteria.

Mejia, Paskin and DC 37 leaders raised concerns about the city's Ebola preparedness and contamination risks for city employees, and the union's Health and Safety Dept. developed a tracking form for union reps to note members' issues. Mejia said, "Most members are at low risk because the reality is that anyone sick with Ebola would present themselves at a hospital."

"Local 375 lab workers at Bellevue expressed concerns about exposure and protocol," said Grievance Rep Elena Mora. After labor-management meetings, "HHC adopted more precautions."

The personal protective equipment of Ebola response workers was upgraded to include a full layer of disposable, impermeable scrubs, gowns or aprons, a drop-down hood and face mask, two pairs of long gloves and knee-high booties. CDC protocol includes a buddy system and a monitor who reads instructions to help Bellevue's isolation room workers and EMTs don and doff their protective gear.

"Advocating for members - and members' advocating for themselves - had great results," said Mora.

At an Ebola education and readiness forum Nov. 10 at DC 37, Health Dept. disease detectives, doctors and union leaders called for state safety bureau involvement and more extensive training and protective gear for airplane and transit cleaners and Sewage Treatment Workers.

HHC had cut staff so deeply that as management reassigned workers to the Ebola unit, areas like the World Trade Center Health program were understaffed.

HHC contracted out waste removal from Bellevue's isolation ward at an estimated $100,000 per day, noted some union officials. With proper training and equipment, in the future DC 37 members could do this work, Mejia said.

New York's Ebola emergency is over, but the lessons - and the urgency - remain.

"We've learned that the more transparency and information we have, the better we can work together to make the city's Ebola plan more comprehensive and effective," Mejia said.