Maui Health CEO Mike Rembis talks with Lt. Gov. Josh Green during a tour of Maui Memorial Medical Center in March. The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photo

Maui Memorial Medical Center’s top official said Thursday that there was no cover-up of the cluster of 15 employees who tested positive for COVID-19, some as far back as mid-March.

“It surely wasn’t a cover-up,” said Maui Health System CEO Michael Rembis, a day after the news broke about the cluster of positive employees. “We are really transparent.”

Rembis said that Maui Health, which operates Maui Memorial, Kula Hospital and Lanai Community Hospital, reached out the state Department of Health after identifying how many employees were positive this week. He said the hospital asked for guidance and assisted the Health Department to trace contacts with those who tested positive.

When asked why the hospital didn’t come forward earlier when numbers of infected employees began to grow, and why officials did not immediately answer questions posed earlier this week by The Maui News about employees testing positive, Rembis said that the number of cases change at the hospital, just as they do in the community, and that the hospital does not get asked about their positive employee numbers on a daily basis.

On the day the news of the cluster broke, the state health director acknowledged that there may have been problems at Maui Memorial Medical Center that contributed to the outbreak, and the lieutenant governor expressed frustration to other news outlets that he hadn’t been adequately informed of the cluster.

Maui Memorial Medical Center is pictured earlier this month. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

When asked Thursday when he learned of the cluster and whether the hospital could have done more to reduce the number of positive employees, Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino said that he was notified Wednesday.

“To answer, could more have been done, you know in my life, hindsight has been 20/20,” Victorino said. “I’ve never been wrong looking back. It is my belief that a lot was done right. Maybe a few missteps could’ve happened. But I believe right now, I truly in my heart of hearts understand from the knowledge I’ve been given from all parties that the right steps are now being taken and those mistakes will not be repeated.”

Victorino did not elaborate on those “missteps.”

At the hospital in a conference call Thursday, Rembis said more than 70 people in the hospital, patients and employees, have been tested. If workers test positive, they will be asked to stay at home and be “furloughed,” though Rembis clarified that “furlough” at the hospital means the person still gets paid.

In the weeks prior to the announcement of the cluster, hospital workers had complained about not being able to wear their own masks, including cloth masks, to work. The hospital said it was following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines at the time, but instituted a change March 31 to allow workers to wear their own masks when treating non-COVID-19 patients. Employees at the hospital have wondered if changing the policy earlier would have lowered the cluster’s numbers.

Josh Masslon – Told to remove N95 mask

“We have done everything it takes to make sure our employees are safe,” Rembis said.

He emphasized that the policies and procedures they have in place are directed from the CDC.

As far as the masks go, Dr. Lee Weiss, medical director and chairman of Maui Memorial’s Emergency Department, said that a mask does not prevent a person from catching the disease, but wearing a mask could prevent someone with the disease from spreading it.

“Wearing the mask in and of itself, a non-N95 mask, those masks (such as cloth ones) do not prevent people from getting the disease,” Weiss said.

Hospital officials said that CDC guidelines have changed over the last three weeks and will continue to change as more is learned about the virus.

Rembis said that this week, the hospital initiated the policy that doctors, providers and visitors — who are limited to pediatrics and obstetrics — all wear masks. This is on top of the screening the hospital has in place for those coming in.

In comparison, a spokesman for The Queen’s Health Systems, which includes the Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu and Molokai General Hospital, said their policy for everyone to wear a mask at the hospital began March 31. Procedural or surgical masks must be worn in clinical areas. Non-standard masks such as cloth masks can be worn in nonclinical areas, said Sean Ibara, coordinator, corporate communications for Queen’s Health Systems. There is also guidance on those treating COVID-19 patients and those in the emergency department.

Maui Memorial officials said that employees who work in a room with COVID-19 patients wear N95 masks.

Those who may not have contact with patients, such as housekeepers, do not wear N95 masks but may sometimes wear surgical masks.

On Thursday, the issue of masks arose once more when an ICU nurse said he was told to remove his personal N95 mask, which caused a commotion on social media among hospital workers.

Josh Masslon said in a text message Thursday that he “was pulled aside for refusing to remove a medical grade N95 in a crowded hallway with other staff after a temperature check.

“I was told to remove the mask. I did not. I was not permitted to work in the ICU. I was taken to HR (Human Resources) and waited for 3.5 hours. With union backing, management changed their policy and said I could report to work with an N95.”

“Management changed policy after (strong) community support on social media,” Masslon wrote.

He said he feels safer with his N95 as he walks through the hospital. He bought the mask last month on eBay.

Rembis said this was the first time a situation of this type had occurred — though employees have said they’ve been told to remove masks in the past — so the hospital pulled the employee aside.

Hospital officials wanted to find out whether the employee was wearing his own mask so that other employees wouldn’t think that the hospital was giving out N95 masks to various workers, Rembis said. But he added that if the employee were caring for COVID-19 patients, the employee would use an N95 mask from the hospital instead.

United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals’ Executive Vice President Charmaine Morales said in a statement that “our top priority is to protect the health and safety of our patients, registered nurses and other health care workers. This has meant working with the employers to ensure that the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) will be provided and that in the event of PPE shortages, caregivers are able to wear their own masks and PPE without unfair consequences. We continue to work with the employer to ensure that patients and staff are safe.”

Workers have also expressed concerns about not being able to easily access personal protective equipment, with some saying the equipment is kept under lock and key.

Weiss said the problem was that “it was being stolen.”

So, in some departments where the PPE could be easily accessible and potentially stolen, workers may need to call someone to get ahold of the PPE. But for other departments in areas without high traffic, it may be “easy for them to go around the corner” and grab the PPE.

Weiss, who actively works in the hospital, said that he “can say with integrity” that he had seen no problem with getting PPE.

Weiss could not say how much PPE the hospital goes through each day, but said that because appropriate PPE is matched with tasks that hospital workers perform, not everyone will wear an N95 mask. This is in order to have adequate supplies on hand.

When asked why the hospital did not test workers sooner when the first positive cases were appearing, Weiss said that testing has been slow all over the nation. But, he added, they have been told by the state Department of Health that the hospital will get some of the rapid turnaround tests allocated for them.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.