VIDEO: This Clip Beautifully Captures Our Sacrifice

This is us — Jessica from Sutter Roseville opens her heart about her love for her family and the toll this pandemic is taking on them.

ALERT: Respiratory Specialists Call Out Hospitals

Respiratory care practitioners and respiratory therapists are facing extreme exposure to infection since they have so much direct contact with COVID-19 patients. And like many of us, they are not receiving the PPE needed to stay safe. Some have even been refused N95 masks and other PPE during high-risk procedures even as the doctors and nurses working in the very same room are wearing them. This inequality is demeaning and dangerous — and it must stop.

Today more than 400 SEIU-UHW respiratory specialists submitted this open letter to hospital administrators statewide demanding PPE and a stronger voice on the job as we fight this pandemic.

Let’s all take action for the equipment we need to lead our state through this crisis: Click here to let Congress and the Trump administration know that we demand PPE!

REMINDER: Childcare, Housing, and Other Resources for Healthcare Workers

Childcare

SEIU-UHW has partnered with Carina Care, an online matching service that’s connecting us to unionized, licensed childcare providers near our homes. Click here to get started.

Temporary Housing

Governor Newsom responded to our calls for housing by rolling out a program that provides hotel rooms for healthcare workers who have been exposed to or tested positive for COVID-19 so that we can avoid spreading the virus to our loved ones. Click here to learn more and begin the application process.

Kaiser Members

We’ve negotiated strong benefits for lodging, administrative leave, and childcare. Click here to learn more.

Dignity California & Dignity Northridge Members

We are eligible for childcare stipends, free referrals to licensed providers, and free childcare at pop-up centers near your hospitals. To learn more, click on your facility:

Dignity California Hospital Medical Center 

Dignity Northridge Hospital Medical Center

FROM THE FRONTLINES: Safety Innovations

A firm called Because We Can Architecture & Design of Oakland reached out to SEIU-UHW to donate aerosol boxes they created to help protect healthcare workers during certain high-risk procedures. Some of these were delivered to Sutter Mission Bernal/St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco and were put to great use protecting healthcare workers — and now some are on the way to Chinese Hospital:

“It works great — and we made some modifications to make the box even better. We put a drape over it and attached a filter to turn it into a negative pressure box that keeps the virus inside. The vacuum on the aerosol boxes works so well it passed the tissue test. The nurse can go in through one end and the anesthesiologist can fit their arms through the holes to intubate the patient. Meanwhile the staff are protected, which we love.”

Yuvonne Johnson (above), Surgical Tech, Sutter Mission Bernal/St. Luke’s Hospital