MVHS predicts delays after unvaccinated health care workers lose their jobs Monday night

It is not yet clear what health care in the Mohawk Valley will look like Tuesday.  

Under a state mandate, hospital and long-term-care workers must get at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Monday or get laid off. The means some local workers, perhaps dozens or hundreds, won’t be working by Tuesday. 

Area hospitals in Oneida, Herkimer, Otsego and Madison counties reported to the New York State Department of Health that between 66 and 82 percent of their workers were fully vaccinated by Sept. 21, but numbers weren’t available for how many workers had received just the first vaccine dose. Across the state, 84 percent of hospital workers were fully vaccinated as of Sept. 22, according to the health department with numbers at individual hospitals ranging from 54 percent to 100 percent. 

The potential layoffs will hit while hospitals are already struggling with staffing issues, hospital officials across the state have said:  

• Hospitals are seeing higher numbers of COVID-19 patients. Daily hospitalizations for Oneida County residents are currently at their highest levels since February.  
• Hospitals are seeing more non-COVID patients who are very sick. 
• Hospitals across the country are already having trouble recruiting enough staff.  
• Health care workers are already exhausted — or have already quite the field — because of the pandemic’s toll. 

“This is a time unlike anything our healthcare system has experienced,” Mohawk Valley Health System President/CEO Darlene Stromstad wrote in a digital employee newsletter that came out Friday. “It is the most disastrous time in healthcare since the pandemic of 1918. But this is what I know: we will get through this.” 

She did warn the community, though, to be prepared for delays and longer waits for routine care. 

Fluid numbers

The state data from Sept. 21 shows the percentage of workers who are fully vaccinated at area hospitals:  

A.O. Fox Hospital in Oneonta: 66 percent 

Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown: 82 percent. 

Community Memorial Hospital in Hamilton: 82 percent. 

Little Falls Hospital: 77 percent. 

Oneida Health in Oneida: 87 percent 

Rome Health: 80 percent. 

St. Elizabeth Campus, Mohawk Valley Health System in Utica: 79 percent. 

St. Luke’s Campus, Mohawk Valley Health System in New Hartford: 80 percent. 

But those numbers don’t necessarily predict the situation for Tuesday. The state data doesn’t include workers with only one shot, tends to lag and doesn’t reflect a quick increase, at least at some hospitals, in the number of workers who have chosen to get vaccinated, officials said. 

More than 91 percent of workers in the Bassett Healthcare Network had gotten at least one shot as of Thursday, said Paul Uhrig, chief legal officer.  

“We see more every day,” he said, “so that number is increasing every day.”   

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And the numbers seem to be spread out fairly evenly between different departments and hospitals, he said. 

“The increasing number of COVID (cases) is always a concern, but we’ve done a lot of planning here,” Uhrig said. “And we feel good about our ability to maintain the services that we’re providing.”  

Officials at the Mohawk Valley Health System declined to discuss numbers or potential impacts on individual departments in the days leading up to the vaccine deadline, saying that the numbers are too fluid. They will continue to offer vaccinations to employees over the weekend and on Monday.  

The health system will hold a press briefing on Tuesday to let the community know its final standing once the layoffs take effect.  

“We are working with the manager and directors of all departments to determine potential impact on staffing and if we will need to adjust services based on this information,” Stromstad wrote in the newsletter.  

Still a debate

Carrying signs reading “Stand up, America, before it’s too late” and “My body, my choice, no mandates,” a group of health care workers held a protest against the state mandate in front of St. Luke’s rec to object to the state mandate.  

The vaccine mandate does not include workers who have a medial exemption for the vaccine. For the moment, it also does not include workers who have requested religious exemptions. A U.S. District Court Judge issued a temporary order blocking the mandate for those seeking religious exemptions in response to a lawsuit by a group of 17 health care workers.  

“As a health care organization, we strongly promote and encourage those within our organization and outside the organization to get vaccinated,” said Caitlin McCann, MVHS’ vice president of marketing and communications. “This is our best tool in the fight against COVID.”  

Amy Roth is the health and education reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Amy Roth at aroth@gannett.com.