Syracuse, N.Y. – Syracuse’s three biggest nursing homes may have to fire about 550 employees if they don’t get vaccinated for Covid-19 by Monday, the deadline set by the state.
Nearly 20% of Central New York nursing home workers and 15% of hospital workers are still unvaccinated, according to the most recent data available from the state Health Department.
Many nursing homes reported small increases in worker vaccination rates in the past week, but nowhere near enough to avoid mass firings. The same is true among Syracuse’s hospitals, which saw virtually no changes among their unvaccinated staffs in recent days, state data show.
That means despite the threat of losing their jobs, thousands of local health care workers are not rushing to get their shots by Monday’s deadline.
The mandate requires health care workers at nursing homes and hospitals to get at least one dose of vaccine by Monday. If they don’t, the state won’t let them do their jobs, and hospitals and nursing homes can fire them. Nursing home and hospital workers were offered the vaccine before anyone else when it became available in December.
Stephen Hanse, of the New York Health Facilities Association, a nursing home trade group, said nursing homes and hospitals won’t be able to persuade all unvaccinated workers to get shots by the deadline.
“We will reach a point Monday when those individuals who feel very strongly about not wanting to be vaccinated will not get vaccinated,” Hanse said.
The loss of workers will compound a labor shortage already making it difficult for many nursing homes across the state to accept more patients from hospitals, he said.
“Losing one nurse in this workforce crisis is one nurse too many,” Hanse said.
Already, the federal government rates Van Duyn and Bishop Rehabilitation and Nursing Center -- the county’s second and third largest nursing homes -- below average on staffing.
The staffing at Loretto Health and Rehabilitation Center, the county’s largest nursing home, is average. Staffing levels are measured by the average amount of care residents receive daily from nursing staff.
Yet many of those staffers remain unvaccinated.
Only 68% of workers are vaccinated at Van Duyn in Onondaga. That’s way below the average 81% vaccination rate for Central New York nursing homes. The troubled, privately-owned nursing home has been repeatedly cited by the state for poor care, neglect and not having enough staff to care for residents.
Van Duyn has about 658 employees, according to federal data. It will have to let go about 210 of them if its vaccination rate does not skyrocket over the next four days.
The 583-bed Loretto Health and Rehabilitation Center at 700 E. Brighton Ave. in Syracuse is Onondaga County’s largest nursing home.
Its employee vaccination rate is 76.5%. If that rate doesn’t budge by Monday it will face laying off 209 of its 910 workers.
Julie Sheedy, a Loretto official, said the nursing home’s employee vaccination rate is higher than the state Health Department data shows because it is holding clinics every day this week in anticipation of the deadline.
“Our teams have developed contingency staffing plans should we need to adjust staffing after the state’s deadline,” Sheedy said. “There is still no indication at this time that we would need to limit any services.”
Bishop, the county’s third largest nursing home, has 539 employees, according to federal data. The Syracuse nursing home may have to fire 120 of them based on its vaccination rate of 77.6%.
Nursing home and hospital industry officials have asked the state to allow unvaccinated employees to continue working as long as they get tested regularly.
But Gov. Kathy Hochul is not budging on the issue.
“There’s not going to be a change in my position,” Hochul said Thursday.
She said New York is considering recruiting medical personnel from the Philippines, other countries and states to replace unvaccinated workers who don’t comply with the mandate.
Employee vaccination rates at Syracuse’s three major hospitals did not change over the past week, while rates at three small hospitals in the region increased slightly.
Syracuse’s three major hospitals combined could lose more than 2,000 workers if every unvaccinated worker refuses to get shots. Hospitals might have to curtail elective surgeries.
(Are you a worker or patient in a Central New York hospital or nursing home? What is happening there as the deadline for the vaccination mandate approaches? Contact James T. Mulder at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@Syracuse.com)
Here are Central New York employee vaccination rates at nursing homes as of Sept. 20:
Central Park, Syracuse
59.2%
Sunnyside, East Syracuse
66.7%
Van Duyn, Syracuse
67.9%
Onondaga Center, Minoa
72.5%
Loretto, Syracuse
76.5%
Auburn Rehabilitation, Auburn
77.3%
Bishop, Syracuse
77.6%
St. Camillus, Geddes
78.5%
Jewish Home, Syracuse
80.5%
The Cottages, Cicero
80.7%
The Commons, Auburn
82.6%
Seneca Hill Manor, Oswego
83%
Oneida Health Rehab, Oneida
83%
Crown Park, Cortland
83.1%
Morningstar, Oswego
84.1%
Cortland Park Rehab, Cortland
85.5%
Guthrie Cortland
85.6%
Nottingham, 86.8%
Jamesville
St. Luke, Oswego
88.2%
Iroquois, Jamesville
88.6%
Northwoods, Moravia
89.1%
Elderwood, Liverpool
90.2%
Finger Lakes, Auburn
90.9%
Pontiac, Oswego
94.5%
Crouse, Morrisville
95.3%
Syracuse Home, Baldwinsville
96.1%
Here are Central New York hospital employee vaccination rates as of Sept. 22
St. Joseph’s Health, Syracuse
77%
Auburn Community Hospital, Auburn
80%
Community Memorial, Hamilton
82%
Upstate at Community General, Syracuse
82%
Guthrie, Cortland
83%
Oswego Hospital, Oswego
87%
Oneida Health, Oneida
87%
Upstate (downtown), Syracuse
88%
Crouse, Syracuse
90%
Source: NYS Health Department
James T. Mulder covers health and higher education. Have a news tip? Contact him at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com
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