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Erie County Medical Center, a Western New York hospital in Buffalo, just recorded its highest number of patients in a single day – 553 patients at a licensed facility for 573 beds – but not because of an influx of Covid-19 cases.
Instead, hospital executives said the number of cases was the result of a New York State vaccination mandate – the first mandate to “vaccinate or terminate” across the country. State to be implemented in the country.
“We support the immunization mandate,” said Tom Quatroche, president and CEO of the medical center. However, “we have always asked for a little more time to strategize with the state on how we can also deal with the effects and reality of the mandate.”
When New York’s vaccination mandate went into effect this week, administrators put a fifth of the company’s long-term care staff on unpaid leave – workers who risked their jobs rather than being done. vaccinate. The resulting staff shortage created a “cascading effect” throughout the system.
“It’s the biggest challenge, it’s on the nursing home side,” Quatroche said. “The understaffing has resulted in the closure of units and the inability to get people out of the hospital, which sustains the hospital and blocks beds for people who need emergency beds. “
The result of these factors in Erie County – difficulty hiring, reluctance to vaccinate, and demand from the state – is just one example of the forces hospitals across the country will face as more mandates of the State of California in Maine vaccination are in effect.
While Erie County presents an extreme example, it is far from the only one in New York. State data showed 87% of New York City hospital workers were vaccinated as of Wednesday. A federal mandate on vaccines for more than 100 million workers across the United States, which will include healthcare workers, is still being drafted.
“Frankly, I don’t think a health worker who refuses a vaccine has a leg to stand on,” said Lawrence Gostin, law professor at Georgetown University.
Gostin said vaccination mandates are necessary, urgent, ethical and, most importantly, legal. He also said there was no evidence to show that they had caused staff shortages in the past, when vaccines were needed for illnesses such as the flu.
“It is certainly true that everything about Covid has been politicized,” Gostin said. “But that doesn’t change the scientific facts, and the scientific facts are that Covid vaccines are just as safe as flu vaccines, and much more effective, and it doesn’t change the fact that Covid-19 is a disease a lot. more dangerous with a pathology more serious than the flu.
The warrants appear to be working in New York City, even amid the challenges faced by the Erie County Medical Center. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Sunday that vaccine compliance among nursing home workers rose from 70% to 92% when the mandate went into effect on Monday.
A lawsuit over religious exemptions in New York means workers seeking those exemptions can continue to work until October 12.
The first hospital chain in the country to require vaccination, eight hospitals known as the Houston Methodist in Texas, achieved a 99% vaccination rate of 26,000 health workers and employees in June. The chain only lost about 150 employees and a federal lawsuit to stop the warrant was out of court. A hospital group in North Carolina had a similar experience this week, with all but 1% of employees complying with a vaccine mandate.
Nonetheless, the healthcare industry is nervous after two years of punitive workloads, a lean workforce, and itinerant “agency” nurses demanding exorbitant rates of $ 150 to $ 200 per hour, he said. declared Quatroche.
“While the importance of immunizing all healthcare workers is not questioned, it comes at a time when many hospitals are facing serious staff shortages,” said Jan Emerson-Shea, spokesperson. word of the California Hospital Association.
“It is difficult to predict exactly how the vaccination mandate will play out – each hospital has its own processes and procedures. She added: “It is possible that some healthcare workers will choose to quit their jobs rather than get vaccinated. “
More than 64% of Americans have received a dose of a vaccine, and more than 55% are fully vaccinated with a high degree of regional variability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States has struggled to vaccinate its people, with a laborious campaign lagging behind its peers in the G7, a club of seven highly developed and populous democracies.
“The fact that we have politicized the vaccine does not change the risks of safety or efficacy, and it does not change the responsibility of health workers to protect their patients,” Gostin said. “If this were true, then any misinformation or false belief would be enough to create danger in the health care system. And it is simply untenable.
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