California warrants increase vaccination rates among healthcare workers



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“It has become a real challenge for some hospitals to have enough staff,” Ms. Emerson-Shea said, adding that her organization had asked the California Attorney General to investigate reports of price increases by agencies charging hospitals hundreds of dollars an hour. .

This week, state public health officials offered healthcare facilities a 45-day compliance grace period to address critical staff shortages caused by the warrant.

But California has generally taken a strong stance on pandemic health measures. At the onset of the crisis, the state was among the first to issue stay-at-home orders, and it was among the most aggressive in promoting masks and vaccinations.

Mr Newsom – who overcame a pandemic-fueled effort to remove him from office earlier this month – said this week the state was “in talks” with school districts over a demanding mandate that eligible students get vaccinated. This week, state health officials also extended the mandate of health workers to thousands of home health workers and health workers in centers for the elderly, centers for the disabled and the hospices, giving them a deadline on November 30.

“This is a critically important mandate that helps keep everyone safe in our health care system, and it especially protects those who are critically ill and who depend on hospitals and other facilities for their health. protect their health, “Dr Tomás J. Aragón, the state’s director of public health, said in a statement, adding that health authorities are closely monitoring deadlines and” expect full compliance. “

Compliance appears to be the goal of the state’s largest healthcare employers. In Kaiser Permanente’s massive system, for example, more than nine in 10 of California’s 216,000 employees and 23,000 physicians are fully vaccinated, a spokesperson for the system said. Two weeks ago, the vaccination rate for system workers was around 87%.

At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, about 97% of an estimated 17,000 employees are now vaccinated. Dr Jeffrey A. Smith, director of operations, said while most of the hospital’s staff and doctors were early adopters, up to 800 staff were vaccinated after the state’s tenure limited their options for working in other California hospitals.

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