OCTOBER 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 11
VACCINE MANDATES
HOSPITALS FIRE UNVAXXED STAFF
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
Dozens of hospital staff ers across Long
Island were fi red or suspended for not
complying with a New York State mandate
to get the Covid-19 vaccine by the
Sept. 27 deadline, offi cials said.
The mandate prompted fears that staff
shortages could cause some hospitals to
postpone elective surgeries or curtail services,
although the impact did not appear
to be as dramatic at the nearly two dozen
hospitals across Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The impact may be felt in other regions
with lower vaccination rates, experts say.
“We have begun a process to exit all
unvaccinated team members using a
carefully planned approach that both
maintains continuity of care at all of our
facilities and ensures the safety of all
of our patients,” New Hyde Park-based
Northwell Health said in a statement,
noting that about two dozen workers
left the system. “Northwell regrets losing
any employee under such circumstances,
but as healthcare professionals
and members of the largest healthcare
provider in the state, we understand
our unique responsibility to protect the
health of our patients and each other.
We owe it to our staff , our patients and
the communities we serve to be 100
percent vaccinated against Covid-19.”
Days before the deadline, Gov. Kathy
Hochul said she was considering employing
the National Guard and outof
state medical workers to fi ll staffi ng
shortages, with 16% of the state’s 450,000
hospital staff not fully vaccinated.
Healthcare workers who are fi red for
refusing to get vaccinated will not be
eligible for unemployment insurance
unless they are able to provide a valid
doctor-approved request for medical
accommodation, Hochul’s offi ce said.
The inoculation push comes as President
Joe Biden and other state and federal
political leaders ratchet up pressure
on unvaccinated Americans, some of
whom object to mandates on religious or
health grounds. The state health department
issued a deadline mandating that
all healthcare workers receive at least
their fi rst Covid-19 shot, triggering a
rush by hospitals to get their employees
inoculated. A federal judge in Albany
temporarily ordered New York state
offi cials to allow religious exemptions
for the state-imposed vaccine mandate
on healthcare workers.
“The vast majority of our staff is fully
vaccinated,” said Greg Sleter, a spokesman
for Catholic Health, which has six
hospitals across the region. “As of the
vaccine deadline, 87% were vaccinated
and this number continues to increase.”
Several other hospitals on LI said they
were still gathering data on the vaccine
mandate staff departures as of press
time.
As far as patients at local hospitals go,
offi cials say that the majority of people
admitted for treatment of Covid-19 are
unvaccinated, with so-called breakthrough
cases — people who’ve been
inoculated but catch coronavirus anyway
— making up about 20%.
Northwell offi cials said that was the
breakdown as of Sept. 20, when it had
350 Covid-19 patients hospitalized, and
Sleter said that fi gure was true of the
116 patients that were admitted as of
Sept. 27.
“The vast majority of vaccinated Covid
patients are not critically ill,” Sleter
added.
Barry Rosenthal, M.D., chairman of
the emergency department at NYU
Langone Hospital — Long Island, agreed,
and put his estimate at 90% of the 20 to
25 patients hospitalized with Covid-19
on average each day at the Mineola
hospital.
“The vast majority of patients who are
hospitalized with Covid, they’re not sick
with breakthrough Covid, they’re here
with new Covid for which they had not
been diagnosed,” he said.
-With Reuters
IN THE NEWS
New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a Sept. 27 news conference about the Covid-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare workers. (REUTERS/David ‘Dee’ Delgado)
“We owe it to our
staff, our patients
and the communities
we serve to be 100
percent vaccinated
against Covid-19,”
Northwell Health said.
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
