Nurses and other health care employees protested in front of Riverside Community Hospital on Wednesday, April 22, saying that the hospital’s limitations on personal protective equipment put them and the public at risk.

About 50 protesters held signs with messages such as “PPE saves lives” and “Please Protect Everyone” — both references to personal protective equipment that they say is being excessively rationed.

Nurses and health care employees at Riverside Community Hospital hold signs during a protest Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Employees at Riverside Community Hospital say the hospital is rationing personal protective equipment in a way that’s compromising their safety. They staged a protest outside the facility in downtown Riverside on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

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Riverside Community Hospital employees protest in downtown Riverside on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

About 50 nurses and other employees at Riverside Community Hospital protest in downtown Riverside on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Riverside Community Hospital employees stand along Magnolia Avenue during a Wednesday, April 22, 2020, protest. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)



Nurses and health care employees at Riverside Community Hospital protest outside the facility Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Riverside Community Hospital employees rally outside the facility in downtown Riverside on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Signs encourage drivers to honk during a protest outside Riverside Community Hospital in downtown Riverside on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Nurses and other employees at Riverside Community Hospital protest outside the facility in downtown Riverside on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Nurses and other employees at Riverside Community Hospital line Magnolia Avenue during a Wednesday, April 22, 2020, protest. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)



A protester holds a sign outside Riverside Community Hospital in downtown Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Nurses and health care employees at Riverside Community Hospital organized a protest outside the facility in downtown Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Riverside Community Hospital employees protest Wednesday, April 22, 2020. They say the hospital is rationing personal protective equipment in a way that’s compromising their safety. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Approximately 50 nurses and health care employees at Riverside Community Hospital protest Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Riverside Community Hospital cardiac nurse Jenna Kilgore protests outside the facility with about 50 other nurses and health care employees Wednesday, April 22, 2020. Employees say the hospital is rationing personal protective equipment in a way that’s compromising their safety. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)



Protesters declined to speak on the record, saying hospital administrators had told them not to.

Hospital spokeswoman Cherie Crutcher didn’t respond to a question about whether employees had been told not to speak to the news media. She said there is a worldwide shortage of equipment to protect against the novel coronavirus and the hospital is following all guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC says there is a shortage and offers strategies to stretch the supply that it acknowledges “may pose a risk for transmission.”

Crutcher said in an email that the hospital enacted universal masking for all employees, appointed a steward to ensure those who most need equipment to protect against COVID-19 have it, created centers in the hospital to quickly disperse equipment and established pandemic pay continuation programs.

In a statement, Riverside Community Hospital CEO Jackie DeSouza-Van Blaricum criticized the protest.

“This is not a time to create conflict and dissension within healthcare organizations that are doing everything possible to protect caregivers and patients,” she said. “This is the time to depend on each other, trusting that we are doing everything possible for each other to come together as HCA Healthcare Family and deliver on our mission.”