Nurses union requests inspection of two HCA hospitals in Kansas City area

An ongoing feud between National Nurses United and HCA Healthcare has led to National Nurses United, the union for HCA nurses, to ask OSHA to inspect numerous HCA hospitals including two in the Kansas City area.

The union requested inspection of 17 HCA Healthcare hospitals, the two in the metro including Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park and Research Medical Center in Kansas City.

According to claims from the union, HCA has failed to notify workers when they’ve been exposed to COVID-19. Another complaint includes claims that nurses have been encouraged to work even when they have shown symptoms of COVID-19.

“Six months into a virulent pandemic, the science has proven how unsafe conditions put frontline caregivers at extreme risk; that is the backdrop to the Covid-19 deaths of more than 1,500 health care workers, including nearly 200 RNs,” Malinda Markowitz, president of the National Nurses Organizing Committee, said in a release. “HCA’s callous disregard for the safety of the nurses and their co-workers who have put their lives, their co-workers, and their families on the line every day, is deplorable. They must be held accountable.”