Physician Union Protest MultiCare Clinics Over COVID-19 Safety

PUYALLUP, WA — Providers and physicians came together this week to speak out against what they say is a lack of COVID-19 safety precautions at MultiCare Indigo clinics in Pierce County.

As the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD) explains, members chose to picket outside MultiCare Indigo Puyallup and MultiCare Indigo James Center this week in response to what they call a "failure to take provider safety concerns seriously."

The movement was a call for the community to pay attention, and an opportunity to raise awareness of a few issues they have with MultiCare's conduct during the pandemic. Protesters say their issues include:

• The recent Washington Labor & Industries investigation which found multiple "serious and recurring" safety violations at Indigo clinics across Washington.
• Unsustainable staffing and difficulty managing patient volume.
• Unaddressed incidents where patients attacked heath care workers.
• Overlong 12-hour work shifts.

"The public deserves safe and sanitary urgent care conditions, and the best possible care from providers who are not overworked," said UAPD President Dr. Stuart Bussey. "MultiCare is failing their patients tremendously by neglecting their clinics, failing to comply with safety laws, and refusing to take care of their providers."

In a statement obtained by the Tacoma News Tribune, MultiCare rebuked several of the union's claims, saying that they had provided employees with necessary PPE and "strongly" disagreed with L&I's earlier citations.

“While we support our provider’s right to negotiate a fair labor contract, we’re disappointed by the informational pickets planned for this week and the inflammatory comments made by UAPD, which are counterproductive to mediation and bargaining,” MultiCare said.

As KIRO News reports, in February L&I cited MultiCare's Indigo Urgent Care clinic in Puyallup a total of $28,400, saying that MultiCare had failed to enforce safe social distancing and had not provided employees “appropriate respiratory protection”.

This week's protests follow a similar pair of protests from the union back in November, in which UAPD aired many of the same concerns.

Related: Ransom Paid To Recover Data Of 200,000 MultiCare Patients, Staff