March 26, ACEP COVID-19 Communications Hub

After hearing a growing number of reports over the past week of emergency physicians being restricted by their hospital from wearing PPE or even being punished for doing so (whether the PPE was supplied by the hospital or personally obtained), ACEP has been in discussions with the Joint Commissions and OSHA advocating for official guidance or clarification from them to hospitals so that your rights to wear PPE are protected. We've been asked to provide them with specific examples of such occurrences, and are therefore reaching out to you here for your help. 

If you've experienced such PPE restrictions or been sanctioned or punished in any way by your hospital for wearing it, please email me with a short description of what happened at lwooster@acep.org.

Please rest assured that no identifying information will be passed along to the Joint Commission or OSHA; all individual physician names and hospitals will be redacted before I send any collected anecdotes on to them. Please note that while first-hand accounts are greatly preferred, if you do know of such actions against a colleague at your own hospital only, these could be helpful to us as well, as long as they contain sufficient detail that you are confident is accurate.

Thank you, and please stay safe.

Laura Wooster, MPH
Associate Executive Director, Public Affairs
American College of Emergency Physicians
O: (202) 370-9298