NY Hospitals Worry About Staff Shortages As Monday Vaccine Deadline Approaches

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Medical personnel adjust their personal protective equipment while working in the emergency department at NYC Health + Hospitals Metropolitan in New York.





John Minchillo/AP



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John Minchillo/AP



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A N.Y. Hospital Will Stop Delivering Babies As Workers Quit Over A Vaccine Mandate

Earlier this week, a judge refused to halt New York City’s plan to require teachers in the country’s largest public school system to get vaccinated, a mandate that is also to begin Monday.

That looming deadline was also raising concerns about potentially thousands of teachers and school staff being suspended Monday.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew on Thursday asked the city to delay the rule, saying «our schools are not ready.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said he was confident holdouts would get the shot this weekend rather than face a loss of pay. And if not, he said, «we have thousands and thousands of vaccinated experienced substitute teachers ready to go.

The mandate for health care workers comes as hospitals are already reeling from staff shortages due in part to rising demand, workers retiring and weary employees seeking other jobs after 18 months of the pandemic.

There is one option for workers who don’t want to get the shot, which is to apply for a religious exemption. That would buy them until at least Oct. 12, while a federal judge considers a legal challenge arguing that such exemptions are constitutionally required.

With time ticking down on the health care mandate, Northwell Health was trying to persuade thousands of holdouts to get vaccinated, including individual meetings with staffers. The system’s personnel chief, Maxine Carrington, said they’re seeing a lot more appointments being scheduled.

«I’ve had personal conversations with team members, and I was asked by one: ‘Are you really going to fire us on the 27th?’ And I said, let’s put that aside for a minute and let’s talk about saving your life. Why don’t you want to get vaccinated? Carrington said.

She said staff that refuse the inoculations will «no longer be qualified for employment.

As of Thursday, about 90% of Northwell’s 74,000 active personnel had been vaccinated. Still, the hospital system acknowledged that it did not expect full compliance and had more than 3,000 retirees, volunteers and health care students on standby, should they be needed Monday.

The University of Rochester Medical Center, in the state’s fourth largest city, announced a two-week pause in scheduling new elective procedures at its Strong Memorial Hospital beginning Monday. It also is temporarily closing two urgent care centers this week.

One wild card is no one knows if a burst of health care workers will simply wait until the last minute to get a jab.

One hopeful sign: New York-Presbyterian, one of the state’s largest hospital systems, had imposed an earlier vaccination deadline on its workers — midnight Wednesday — and reported fewer than 250 of its 48,000 staffers had failed to comply.

Spokesperson Alexandra Langan said in an email: «For those who chose not to comply, they will not continue to work at NYP.

New York state has been averaging just under 5,000 new COVID-19 cases per day with around 2,300 people hospitalized. That’s far worse than in late June, when around 300 people were testing positive each day statewide.