{"id":22150,"date":"2020-04-09T20:10:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T03:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=22150"},"modified":"2020-04-09T20:10:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T03:10:28","slug":"feds-seize-wa-hospital-bound-virus-test-kits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/feds-seize-wa-hospital-bound-virus-test-kits\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds seize WA Hospital Bound Virus test kits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n<a href=\"mailto:drasbach@bhamherald.com\">BY DAVID RASBACH<\/a>APRIL 09, 2020 08:39 AM\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nA delivery of test kit materials that would have allowed Bellingham\u2019s St. Joseph hospital and other PeaceHealth medical facilities in the Northwest to run COVID-19 tests quicker were seized and diverted by the federal government to the East Coast, PeaceHealth reports.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nA response statement from the Federal Emergency Response Management Agency emailed to The Bellingham Herald said, \u201cReports of FEMA commandeering or re-routing such supplies are false.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThe Los Angeles Times first reported about the\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2020-04-07\/hospitals-washington-seize-coronavirus-supplies\" target=\"_blank\">federal government quietly seizing orders for medical supplies<\/a>\u00a0made by hospitals in a story Tuesday, April 7. Those seizures came despite President Trump directing states and hospitals to secure what supplies they could to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThe Times reported that PeaceHealth, which has 10 hospitals in Washington, Oregon and Alaska including St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, was among those impacted.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201c\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly frustrating,\u201d PeaceHealth Chief Operating Officer Richard DeCarlo told the Times. \u201cWe had put wheels in motion with testing and protective equipment to allow us to secure and protect our staff and our patients.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThe materials seized from PeaceHealth include vital test kit materials that are needed to run in-house analyzer machines, PeaceHealth Manager of Public Affairs Jeremy Rush told The Bellingham Herald in an email.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThose machines were purchased specifically for COVID-19 testing in PeaceHealth hospitals, Rush reported.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cOur analyzers remain idle, while we continue to send specimens to outside laboratory testing sites, prioritizing labs based on the shortest turnaround times,\u201d Rush wrote.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nIn Northwest Washington, including St. Joseph hospital, that\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bellinghamherald.com\/news\/coronavirus\/article241627986.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Northwest Labs in Bellingham<\/a>, Rush reported.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nIf PeaceHealth hospitals had received the test kit materials and been able to do in-house testing, Rush wrote, and then it more quickly could rule out patients that tested negative for COVID-19. That, in turn, would have allowed the hospital to conserve personal protective equipment at a greater rate.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThat being said, Rush stressed that \u201cbecause of our ongoing planning and preparedness efforts, we continue to be stocked with PPE to meet current demand.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nWhen the test kit materials were redirected, PeaceHealth simply received information from its supplier that the items were not going to be delivered and told \u201cthey had been diverted to the East Coast based on direction from the federal government,\u201d Rush reported.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nAccording to the Los Angeles Times story, hospital and clinic officials in seven states described similar seizures in the past week, though the Federal Emergency Management Agency has not publicly announced the seizures.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nFEMA and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are working to prevent domestic brokers, distributors and others from sending critical medical resources overseas, according to the FEMA statement.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cPPE being distributed internally within the United States is not being seized or re-routed by FEMA,\u201d the statement read.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nIf a hospital suspects that has happened to an order, the FEMA statement suggested it be reported to their state\u2019s governor. Governors who believe it has happened should report it to the FEMA Region.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cIf a company decides to cancel on a state contract in favor of federal one, FEMA will work with the company and the state to resolve the matter in a way that best serves their people,\u201d the statement read.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nFEMA also suggests anyone who learns of hoarding or price gouging of PPE to report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud by calling 866-720-5721 or emailing&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:%20disaster@leo.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">disaster@leo.gov<\/a>.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY DAVID RASBACHAPRIL 09, 2020 08:39 AM A delivery of test kit materials that would have allowed Bellingham\u2019s St. Joseph hospital and other PeaceHealth medical facilities in the Northwest to run COVID-19 tests quicker were seized and diverted by the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/feds-seize-wa-hospital-bound-virus-test-kits\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22152,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22150\/revisions\/22152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}