A health care worker in a protective suit stands inside a six lane COVID-19 drive-through testing facility at Glen Island Park in New Rochelle, New York, in March. Photo: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

The New York State Nurses Association launched a lawsuit against a Bronx hospital Monday, accusing the medical center of not doing enough to protect workers on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal litigation against Montefiore Medical Center argues that nurses are treating sick patients with "inadequate" equipment, frequently in rooms that were not properly converted to handle a COVID-19 patient. 

The lawsuit further alleges that nurses are "often working while they are sick because they have been forced back to work too early" and "often in practice areas where they have never been trained."

The union is being represented by the firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon. 

The coronavirus has raged through downstate New York, but state officials say there are signs that lockdown measures are waning the overall pressure on the state's hospital system. Hospitalization figures and the number of people intubated are trending downward, according to state numbers.

Despite those indicators, the lawsuit said nurses are still treating large numbers of "very sick and frightened patients."

"Montefiore has become a major center for treating COVID-19 and suspected COVID-19 patients," according to the lawsuit. "Right now, the hospital is like a war zone."

The hospital, according to the litigation, rejected the union's efforts to lessen the risks associated with the new coronavirus.

The lawsuit asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to compel the hospital to provide a sufficient number of personal protective equipment, such as fitted N95 masks, clean face shields and non-permeable gowns. 

Health care workers nationwide have raised concerns and issued warnings about not having enough personal protective equipment during the coronavirus outbreak. 

The union, which represents about 42,000 frontline nurses, says about 72% of its members have been exposed to the coronavirus at work and at least eight registered nurses in the union have died due to contracting the virus at work.

The lawsuit said the hospital is requiring nurses to treat COVID-19 patients without providing them N95 respirators or requiring them to use the same N95 respirator for days while looking after numerous patients. 

"The normal standard of care in the United States is that disposable N95 respirators must be discarded after each patient care session," the lawsuit states. The union argues that surgical masks are ineffective at protecting the nurses from the airborne particles and aerosolized droplets that come from patients with the virus.

The union also asked the court to compel the hospital to enforce the visitors policy and to provide a secure space to put on and take off personal protective equipment.

Montefiore Medical Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the litigation.

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