Over a Hundred Essential Care Workers and Supporters Hold a COVID-19 5-Year Remembrance Event and Call for Critical State Funding
    Over a Hundred Essential Care Workers and Supporters Hold a COVID-19 5-Year Remembrance Event and Call for Critical State Funding
    News

    PROVIDENCE

    Over a Hundred Essential Care Workers and Supporters Hold a COVID-19 5-Year Remembrance Event and Call for Critical State Funding

    11 March 2025

    “The work of healthcare heroes is far from over. We need the state to invest in the healthcare system that stands as a pillar of strength and hope for its people.”

    Providence: Today, dozens of essential care workers, community supporters and faith leaders gathered at the State House to hold a special COVID-19 5-Year Remembrance Event. Participants carried photos and mementos of loved ones lost and wrote their names on a remembrance board, honoring Rhode Island's nearly 4,500 victims of COVID-19. Frontline caregivers were lauded for their sacrifices and called healthcare heroes but inadequate effort was made to keep them safe in their workplaces. As such, over 3,600 US healthcare workers lost their lives in the first year of the pandemic alone. 

    “As healthcare professionals, we were hailed as heroes in the darkest days of the pandemic. At Butler Hospital, the surge in mental health issues, compounded by the isolation and fear brought on by COVID-19, required extraordinary resilience and dedication. We provided critical support to patients grappling with anxiety, depression, and other mental health crises, often at great personal cost.” 

    Dawn Williams, a Registered Nurse at Butler Hospital

    Of Rhode Island’s nearly 4,500 COVID-19 victims, nearly 2,000 were nursing home residents. The disproportionate impact on nursing homes revealed the extent to which the system was broken, exposing the impact of chronic understaffing, poor infection control and poverty wages. “When the pandemic hit we went from low level crisis to a full blown catastrophe, and the bottom fell out. There were only four staff members and 30 COVID patients and many of our residents suffered and died. It was heartbreaking - and I felt I couldn’t do enough to save them,” said Stefania Silvestri, Registered Nurse from the Greenville Center. 

    During the height of the pandemic, I spent one month in Kingston Center and I witnessed firsthand the terrible reality of short staffing. There were only two CNAs for an average of 30 residents. I could hear residents screaming out in the middle of the night because they needed help but there wasn’t enough staff there to help them. It is hard to believe it but I actually think things are worse now than they were then. Even though we passed the staffing law, companies like Centers Health Care know they can get away with short staffing and not face any consequences.

    Sherman Pines, former nursing home resident

    The devastation wrought by the pandemic helped spur passage of The Nursing Home Staffing and Quality Care Act in May, 2021, which gave Rhode Island the highest staffing standards in the country, supplied training grants and stipulated that 80% of any funding increase equal a wage pass through to frontline staff. However, since Governor McKee signed the bill into law, the law was never enforced and, now, the Governor has proposed to gut the law by weakening staffing standards, redirecting Medicaid funding meant for frontline caregivers to managers and reducing or waiving penalties. Currently, Rhode Island ranks 39th in the country for staffing levels and not one fine has been issued to nursing homes that failed to meet standards.

    In addition, Governor McKee’s budget proposes nearly $25 million cuts to hospital funding, which includes bypassing the required yearly Medicaid reimbursement rate. Rhode Island already offers lower hospital reimbursement rates than Massachusetts and Connecticut and this move will add further pressure to an already overburdened system, inevitably creating more barriers to care across the state.

    For essential workers at today’s rally, honoring the memory of victims and caregivers’ sacrifice is not enough;  Governor McKee and the General Assembly must support and invest in frontline staff and the healthcare system as a whole. Pending federal Medicaid cuts that could equal more than $242 million in cuts to Rhode Island, according to a new report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute underscore the urgency of state funding. 

    The work of healthcare heroes is far from over. Chronically short staffing levels and low wages at Butler are contributing to a situation where violence against staff has become the rule, not the exception. We need the state to show its support and invest in the healthcare system that stands as a pillar of strength and hope for its people.

    Dawn Williams, a Registered Nurse at Butler Hospital

    Part of this investment must come from holding for-profit nursing home owners accountable for how they are spending public dollars. A recent UCLA paper estimated that in 2019, for-profits were able to conceal 63% of their profit margins through a system called funneling, indicating that only 37% of actual nursing home profits were reported to regulators. In addition, the state could raise additional revenue by adding a new 3% surtax for the top 1% in income on taxable income above $625,000 which would generate $190 million in new revenue.

    Demonstrating this commitment to improving healthcare outcomes must start with listening to the voices of those most invested in the work. On February 11, a group of healthcare professionals went to his office and delivered a letter requesting an urgent meeting with Governor McKee to discuss their healthcare concerns regarding his state budget. They are still awaiting his response. 
    COVID 5 Year 4.jpgCOVID 5 Year 1.jpgCOVID 5 Year 2.jpgCOVID 5 Year 3.jpg