As COVID-19 cases spread across Los Angeles County, more and more public love and support is being given to our brave frontline healthcare workers, showing up day in and day out to take care of and support our communities impacted by this terrible virus.  While we've seen hospitals across LA County secure hotel rooms for frontline workers that need to isolate from their own families between shifts, we haven't seen it at Providence Saint John's in Santa Monica.

Providence Saint John's has been working to provide showers and changing stations for folks coming off their shift, and that is appreciated, but our healthcare workers should have access to lodging between shifts to mitigate the risk of spread to families and other high risk loved ones who aren't able to properly isolate when they get home to a small apartment or home.  We see hotels being offered as an option for workers at hospitals around LA County including USC, UCLA, and others, but haven't seen it for Saint John's workers.  In fact, last week we donated money to a GoFundMe for a nurse to get a hotel room who was sleeping in her car because her husband is immune-compromised and she didn't feel safe going home to him every night after her shift.

My name is Adam and my wife is a Pre-Op/ICU nurse at Saint John's.  We have two young children that love to see her come home from work everyday and give her hugs.  While it would be incredibly difficult on our family, I would feel safer if between shifts of treating COVID19 patients, my wife had an option to stay somewhere else and not have to worry about bringing the virus home with her 3-4 times a week.  Keeping our families as safe as possible makes these "essential workers" better equipped to continue to show up and treat patients.  With the dozens of other Saint John's nurses and staff that I've spoken to in the last few days, I know our family is not the only one that is concerned.

Will you support us in asking Saint John's to work with local hotels to secure rooms for our loved ones, working to keep our families and our community safe?