NJ Hospital Fires 124 For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — RWJ Barnabas, the second largest hospital system in New Jersey, has confirmed it fired 118 employees who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, in addition to the six supervisors it already fired for refusing the vaccine earlier this summer.

In total, 124 RWJ Barnabas staffers have been fired for refusing to get the vaccine.

RWJ gave its 35,000 employees a deadline of Oct. 15 to present proof of vaccination. So far, more than 99 percent of its staff has gotten the shot.

"Regrettably, and despite all best efforts, 118 staff members have not complied with the mandate and are no longer employees of RWJBarnabas Health, per our vaccine mandate policy," said RWJ spokeswoman Linda Kamateh.

RWJ implemented its vaccine mandate in two steps: First, it required all supervisors to get the shot by June 30, and then extended the mandate to all employees by Oct. 15. "Supervisory" means any doctor, nurse or hospital administrator who has a supervisory title.

New Jersey's largest hospital chain, Hackensack Meridian Health, gave its employees a deadline of Nov. 15 to show proof of vaccination. Hackensack already warned that non-compliance would result in termination.

"Hackensack Meridian Health has a 99.8 percent compliance with our vaccine mandate," said Mary McGeever, a Hackensack spokeswoman.

However, the third-largest hospital system in the state, Atlantic Health System in northwest New Jersey, has not implemented a mandate that its employees get the coronavirus vaccine.

Atlantic Health offers its employees the choice to either be vaccinated or tested weekly; one or the other is required.

As of Tuesday, 87 percent of Atlantic Health's employees received at least one dose.

"As of today approximately 87 percent of team members at Atlantic Health System have received at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19, and that is without mandating our team members to receive it," said Atlantic Health spokesman Rob Seman. "At this time Atlantic Health System is providing unvaccinated team members with the option to either receive the vaccine or to be tested weekly before reporting to work. We are proud to share that at this point, no team member has refused to participate in our program."

This means that no unvaccinated Atlantic Health employee has been fired for refusing the weekly coronavirus test.

Gov. Phil Murphy has not required any health care worker be vaccinated for COVID-19. What he did put in place was that, starting Sept. 7, all health care workers are subject to coronavirus testing once or twice per week if they're not fully vaccinated.

The RWJ spokeswoman said the loss of staff will not affect patient care.

"While we take the loss of any team member seriously, we had anticipated some of our staff would not be in compliance and took steps to proactively recruit for positions deemed at-risk for vacancy," she said. "Given the overall number of staff who have been separated from the organization is distributed across our numerous facilities, job types and work shifts, patient care will not be affected, nor will there be any impact on the normal operations of our services.”

She said the vast majority of RWJ Barnabas staff complied and got the shot.

"As of October 15, 99.7 percent RWJBarnabas Health staff have been vaccinated or granted an approved exemption or deferral," she said. "We have an ethical and professional responsibility to protect our patients and ensure a safe, COVID-19 free environment. It is for that reason that we expanded our vaccine mandate to include all staff members and physicians, and established a deadline of October 15, 2021 for completion."

RWJ Barnabas, which operates 15 hospitals from Jersey City to Toms River, was the first hospital system in New Jersey to mandate the vaccine for supervisory staff.

But Hackensack Meridian, which employs about 36,000 employees, one thousand more than RWJ, was the first to mandate the vaccine for all employees.

If you are a hospital employee who would like to talk to Patch, you can reach this reporter directly at carly.baldwin@patch.com.

Prior: 6 RWJBarnabas Employees Fired For Refusing COVID Vaccine (July 20)

Atlantic Health Hasn't Mandated COVID Vaccine For Employees (Aug. 3)

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