As COVID Vaxx Mandate Looms, HV Hospitals Prep, Fire Some Staff

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — As the clock ticks for healthcare workers to get vaccinated or face termination, hospital networks in the region are preparing and Gov. Kathy Hochul has begun a multi-faceted approach to ensure that hospital care is covered in New York.

Hochul also announced Monday that COVID-19 vaccination boosters are now available for eligible New Yorkers.

Residents 65 and older and people with comorbidities who finished their primary series six months ago are now eligible for Pfizer boosters and can schedule appointments at state-run sites here. Booster shots are also available at pharmacies, doctors' office and clinics; to find out where they are available in our community, text your zip code to 438829.

"This is our best defense," Hochul said in her Monday morning briefing.

"My priority is to stop this virus dead in its tracks," she said. "The only way to do this is to ensure everyone is vaccinated but particularly people taking care of the sick ... I need to keep people in this state safe. We're talking about just common sense here. And so I am calling on all the healthcare workers ... to those who have not yet made that decision, please do the right thing."

In the Hudson Valley, hospital networks have been preparing for the state’s mandate that all health care workers get at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27.

At Nuvance, internal tracking showed the percentages of fully vaccinated employees as of Monday afternoon was:

• Vassar Brothers Medical Center – 78 percent
• Northern Dutchess Hospital – 85 percent
• Putnam Hospital – 80 percent

Direct care staff vaccination rates are much higher, said spokeswoman Marcela Rojas.

"Similar to New York State’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all healthcare workers, we are moving toward our own Nuvance Health mandate as well, which goes into effect October 1," she said. "Like all other health systems in New York state, we are partnering with the state Department of Health to track compliance with its mandate and will take any required action.

"It is an understatement to say that the past 18 months have been difficult yet we are confident we will find our way forward through this new challenge by working together. Our proactive contingency planning will help us meet any challenges presented and regardless of staffing limitations affecting health systems across the country, Nuvance Health is committed to ensuring that all of our facilities are staffed to appropriately serve patient needs and to continue to provide high-quality care for our patients and community."

Meanwhile, Northwell Health, which has Northern Westchester and Phelps hospitals in Westchester County, as well as urgent care centers in Dobbs Ferry and New Rochelle, said "we are taking even stronger measures to ensure the safety of our staff and, more importantly, the well-being of our patients and the communities we serve.

"As a health system we are committed to vaccinating our entire workforce beyond the scope of the state’s mandate to include both our clinical and non-clinical staff. A few hundred unvaccinated leaders were contacted last week to take urgent action in regards to getting the shot. About two dozen of them who were still not vaccinated were exited from the system.

"We are now beginning the process to exit the rest of our unvaccinated staff. Northwell wants to reassure the public that during this time there will be no impact to the quality of patient care at any of our facilities. We are proud that our workforce is already nearly 100 percent vaccinated.

"As health care professionals and members of the largest health care provider in New York State, we have a unique responsibility to protect the health of our patients and each other. We care for sick people - some critically ill – every day, and we are responsible for their safety while in our care."

Westchester Medical Center is not answering questions about the vaccination status of its employees, according to its public relations firm, Thompson & Bender. The state's hospital vaccine tracker posted WMC's rate at 79 percent Monday.

Hochul described a multi-faceted response to the consequences of the vaccine mandate at her morning briefing. She said she will be convening an operation center, and she has asked hospitals where high numbers have been vaccinated to give the state the names of people who are willing to be deployed elsewhere to help mitigate staff shortages.

"We're going to have to build a team and be able to respond to areas where they've not been so responsive in terms of making sure their employees have not answered our call, our requirement that they be vaccinated," she said.

Hochul has also signed an executive order giving her the emergency powers necessary to address the shortages, where they occur, and allowing her to deploy the National Guard who are medically trained. The order will also allow her to deploy people, who've either been retired or who may have had a licensed lapse, and finally, to bring in workers from elsewhere to help.

"That is not my first position, though," Hochul said. "My desire is to have the people who've been out there continue to work in their jobs, working in them safely."

Hochul said it will take some time to get things running smoothly should workers refuse to comply with the mandate, but the state is taking steps preemptively in anticipation of what she called a "preventable" staff shortage. "It is not going to be a perfect situation but it's preventable. This is about self-defense," Hochul said. "I'm here to defend the people of New York."

Cornell University Professor Ariel Avgar warned that the vaccine mandate is only one of the many serious stressors on the health care system.

"As with other dimensions of the pandemic, this effort to reduce infections through mandates highlights and exacerbates already existing recruitment and retention challenges throughout the state’s healthcare system," said Avgar, an associate professor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and associate director with the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution. "Nursing and healthcare professional shortages have long been a challenge that practitioners and policymakers needed to address. The past 18 months have, in many areas, pushed the system to the brink. The possibility of having even fewer healthcare professionals available to meet the system’s needs is, I’m sure, a daunting prospect for healthcare administrators."

Patch editor Lisa Finn contributed to this report.