Arcadia Methodist Hospital faces severe shortage of available nurses. Socially-distanced union representatives and exhausted nurses protested the patient-to-staff ratio during the pandemic at Arcadia Methodist Hospital The hospital is using a state waiver to circumvent nurse-to-patient safe staffing standards. Nurses are urging Methodist Hospital to staff “for safe patient care, not to use the pandemic as an excuse to put patients at serious risk.”
Arcadia nursing home sees spike in COVID-19 cases. With 2,708 new laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County as of Tuesday, the county trend indicates some good news, seeing falling virus-related death numbers in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
On Monday, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of Public Health, confirmed that the curve is going down in nursing homes in the County of Los Angeles. At Arcadia Health Care Center, however, 45 residents and eight staff have been confirmed to have the virus. There have been two deaths at that facility as of Tuesday.
Dr. William A. Stark, 84, a retired dentist who had several medical issues, died after he and his wife endured months of pandemic visitation restrictions at his Arcadia nursing home.
Mary Chiu sued nursing home Arcadia Health Care Center for the negligent care that her mother Sui Mee Chiu received. In October 2013, an arbitrator ruled that Sui Mee Chiu had been a victim of elder abuse, negligence and wrongful death, and her daughter Mary Chiu was awarded more than half a million dollars. The investigation is still in progress and Public Health is inquiring into the cause of the delay in the final report and closure of this case.
Methodist Hospital is currently displaying an exhibit honoring its School of Nursing that operated for 43 years, from 1915 until 1958. The school had graduated about 1500 students. Estella Parker Quist, 92, class of 1931, is shown in a photo.
Nearly all Los Angeles County skilled nursing facilities administered first doses of Covid-19 vaccine, including residents and staff at Arcadia Living.
No rest for the weary. Inundated with COVID-19 patients and short on staff and supplies, Arcadia Methodist Hospital faces its toughest test. They may have to choose which patients will receive care if the situation gets any worse. The California Department of Public Health has sent 13 nurses to support the hospital, says spokesperson Cliff Daniels.
A story about Huntington Hospital's nurse recruitment program, the general status of nursing in California, and the nursing personnel shortage, mentions that Arcadia Methodist Hospital gives $5000 bonuses to employees that refer a new hire.
Union opposes changes to nurse-to-patient ratio. The California Nurses Association plans to stage rallies at nearly 70 hospitals and medical centers today to protest waivers that allow facilities to staff some units below state-mandated nurse-to-patient ratios as nurses are shifted to more critical patients. Union reps will gather at several Southern California hospitals, including Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia.