Nurses union, Tacoma hospital at odds over pace of replacing mattresses oozing fluid

Washington State Nurses Association, in a news release this week, described a situation where “blood and other bodily fluids” have leaked from micro-tears in mattresses in the labor-and-delivery department at St. Joseph.

“This is a patient safety issue that we have been raising the alarm on for two months,” Jayson Dick, WSNA director of labor strategies, said in the Nov. 7 WSNA release. “In order to keep patients and staff safe, any compromised mattresses need to be replaced.”

According to WSNA, the problem was discovered on a mattress after the bed’s occupant had been discharged. “Recently, nurses in Labor and Delivery at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma noted blood on the mattress of a patient who had been discharged. They later pushed a white washcloth into the mattress cover and blood and body fluids seeped out,” the union said.