Employees at the Veterans Affairs Department are feeling
pressured to return to work even after they've been exposed to the novel
coronavirus—a new VA policy requires them to continue showing up, and threatens
discipline along with the possibility of losing pay for those who stay home.
The situation is creating a stressful environment in which
VA workers worry their colleagues may be hiding symptoms while they have
insufficient equipment to protect themselves and others from spreading the
virus. Government Executive spoke to employees at more than a half-dozen
facilities, all of whom said management was providing inconsistent guidance and
creating unsafe working conditions.
To date, more than 5,000 patients and 1,600 staff at VA
facilities have tested positive for COVID-19; more than 300 patients and more
than a dozen staff have died from the disease. Until recently at some
facilities, staff told Government Executive, some administrative staff were not
even allowed to wear masks, either because there weren't enough to go around
and they were being reserved for medical personnel with more sustained patient
contact, or because supervisors were worried about alarming patients and
visitors.
At some facilities, VA officials have instituted policies
under which employees who worked with COVID-19 positive patients before their
status was known—and therefore were not wearing the proper equipment—should
continue to work until they develop symptoms, after which they could be tested
for the virus. In some cases, those employees included nurses and doctors who
subsequently tested positive for the virus but returned after seven days when
their symptoms were no longer evident, employees said. One memorandum sent by a
top official at a medical center in Indianapolis said VA facilities should
consider enabling employees “who have had an exposure to a COVID-19 patient to
continue to work after options to improve staffing have been exhausted.”
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