Reasonable Rascal
09-27-02, 00:09
By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff, 9/25/2002
Doctors and nurses expressed concern yesterday that a draft state plan to vaccinate health care workers for smallpox in case of a bioterrorist attack could exacerbate a more immediate problem: a staffing crisis that is shutting down beds in emergency rooms and on hospital wards.
Under the draft plan, up to 20,000 health care workers would be asked to take three weeks off work after being vaccinated, to protect patients and workers from a small risk that the vaccine could spread illness. It contains the vaccinia virus, which can cause rashes or even kill patients with weakened immune systems.
Caregivers vowed to carry out any final state plan, but said the three-week furlough would be very difficult to implement during an acute nursing shortage.
Dr. Brien Barnewolt, chief of emergency medicine at Tufts New England Medical Center, said that taking doctors and nurses out of the hospital for three weeks at a time - even if the vaccines were done on a staggered basis - would further strain a system in which emergency rooms are already turning away patients or forcing them to wait too long for hospital beds, even without a major flu outbreak or other epidemic.
''Frankly, I'm more worried about a potential flu problem than about smallpox,'' he said. ''Flu we know is going to occur. Should we have that problem it could be quite devastating.''
Jeanette Ives Erickson, vice president for nursing at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that in the current climate, ''Even one nurse that is not present to a patient is a lot.''
Barnewolt called the Department of Public Health plan a conservative approach that might turn out to be the right one. Other options, he said, include immunizing health care workers after a case is reported, when there is still a window of time in which the vaccine can be effective.
Dr. George Thibault, director of quality improvment at Partners HealthCare System, which includes Brigham and Women's Hospital and MGH, said hospitals are still discussing with the state the number of workers to be immunized and that 20,000 might not be the final number.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association, the state's largest nurses' union, said it would support the program as long as vaccinations would be voluntary and caregivers would get the financial and logistical support they need.
This story ran on page B4 of the Boston Globe on 9/25/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/268/metro/Doctors_nurses_raise_concerns_over_smallpox_plan%2 B.shtml
Doctors and nurses expressed concern yesterday that a draft state plan to vaccinate health care workers for smallpox in case of a bioterrorist attack could exacerbate a more immediate problem: a staffing crisis that is shutting down beds in emergency rooms and on hospital wards.
Under the draft plan, up to 20,000 health care workers would be asked to take three weeks off work after being vaccinated, to protect patients and workers from a small risk that the vaccine could spread illness. It contains the vaccinia virus, which can cause rashes or even kill patients with weakened immune systems.
Caregivers vowed to carry out any final state plan, but said the three-week furlough would be very difficult to implement during an acute nursing shortage.
Dr. Brien Barnewolt, chief of emergency medicine at Tufts New England Medical Center, said that taking doctors and nurses out of the hospital for three weeks at a time - even if the vaccines were done on a staggered basis - would further strain a system in which emergency rooms are already turning away patients or forcing them to wait too long for hospital beds, even without a major flu outbreak or other epidemic.
''Frankly, I'm more worried about a potential flu problem than about smallpox,'' he said. ''Flu we know is going to occur. Should we have that problem it could be quite devastating.''
Jeanette Ives Erickson, vice president for nursing at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that in the current climate, ''Even one nurse that is not present to a patient is a lot.''
Barnewolt called the Department of Public Health plan a conservative approach that might turn out to be the right one. Other options, he said, include immunizing health care workers after a case is reported, when there is still a window of time in which the vaccine can be effective.
Dr. George Thibault, director of quality improvment at Partners HealthCare System, which includes Brigham and Women's Hospital and MGH, said hospitals are still discussing with the state the number of workers to be immunized and that 20,000 might not be the final number.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association, the state's largest nurses' union, said it would support the program as long as vaccinations would be voluntary and caregivers would get the financial and logistical support they need.
This story ran on page B4 of the Boston Globe on 9/25/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/268/metro/Doctors_nurses_raise_concerns_over_smallpox_plan%2 B.shtml