Washington psychiatric hospital staff say virus tests unsafe
In this April 22, 2020, photo, signs on an entrance to a building at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Wash., tell employees that they must be medically screened at one of two other buildings before entering. Employees at the facility — the state's largest psychiatric hospital — say that problems with testing for the coronavirus likely produced inaccurate results and exposed them to the virus a second time. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
SEATTLE (AP) — Workers exposed to the coronavirus at a troubled psychiatric hospital in Washington state tell The Associated Press that a flawed testing process likely produced inaccurate results and exposed them to the virus again.
They say they were crowded into a small space where few wore masks and told to swirl a swab inside their noses.
The method is meant only for people showing symptoms, and the staffers say none of them did.
They say it’s another failure to protect staff and patients.
The facility has a pattern of attacks and lost its federal funding after multiple investigations.
Officials defend the test as accurate and say they’re working to regain employees’ trust.
