1,400 Workers Of New York's Largest Healthcare Provider Sacked, They Refused To Get Vaccinated
New York State's largest healthcare provider, Northwell Health, has fired 1,400 employees who refused to get COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a spokesman, Joe Kemp.
As with other healthcare companies that have recently terminated workers for not complying with vaccine mandates, the fired employees represent a small percentage of Northwell's workforce of more than 76,000, all of whom are now inoculated.
Inoculation strategy?
New York is requiring that the state¡¯s more than 6,50,000 hospital and nursing home workers be vaccinated, a mandate that started to take effect last week, prompting tens of thousands of employees to get their shots. Others filed lawsuits, and courtrooms across the state are determining when and how to allow exemptions to the requirement.
New York¡¯s health care mandate is particularly strict: Employees do not have the option for weekly testing or exemptions for religious reasons, though the latter is being challenged in the courts.
Company's statement
Northwell announced its vaccine mandate in August, weeks before the state requirement. The company's mandate extended to both clinical and non-clinical workers."Our goal was not to terminate employees," Kemp said. "Our goal was to get people vaccinated."
Kemp said the terminations will have no impact on patient care at Northwell's 23 hospitals and other facilities."Northwell regrets losing any employee under such circumstances," the company said in a statement. "We owe it to our staff, our patients and the communities we serve to be 100 percent vaccinated against COVID-19."?
¡°Northwell has taken a rapid, aggressive approach to move successfully toward full vaccination compliance while maintaining continuity of care and ensuring that our high standard of patient safety is not compromised in any way,¡± the statement continued.
Situation in New York
In New York state, 87 percent of hospital workers were completely inoculated as of Sept 29, according to state health data.
The possibility of widespread staff shortages loomed before the mandate took effect, so much so that Gov. Kathy C. Hochul declared a state of emergency last week that would allow her to deploy National Guard troops, expedite visas for workers from abroad and recruit newly graduated or recently retired health care professionals to fill staffing shortages. ?
So far the number of workers in New York who have left their jobs is relatively small, and does not appear likely to result in the kind of staff shortages that could compromise patient care. Still, the governor¡¯s contingency plans reflect the fears that New York hospitals could be imperiled in the same way that hospitals were in parts of the country that the Delta variant has devastated.
