While the Biden administration is adamant about implementing national vaccine mandates, the will of the populace, particularly healthcare professionals, cannot be ignored. In Texas, hospital directors are split between the President's mandate and the governor's directive, fearful that mandate-related employee resignations would collapse the health system.
A report from KCBD states that rural hospital administrators in Texas claim that they are frustrated and worried after President Joe Biden has ordered all hospital personnel to get COVID-19 vaccines. Some of this is due to inconsistencies between regulatory bodies and contradictory regulations. That's because Governor Abbott forbade public hospitals to order its employees to be jabbed.
"How's Governor Abbott going to take this? He hasn't complied with anything federal laws have done so far. So, we're going have to, here in Texas at least, we're going to have to wait and see how that plays out, "said Jerry Jasper, CEO of the Brownfield Regional Medical Center.
According to Jasper, nurse agencies are luring away employees in search of a better wage, and losing any employees is detrimental to rural hospitals. He claims that while vaccinations are strongly promoted, not all of his employees are willing to comply.
"20 percent of my, probably 20 to 25 percent of my staff will have to go away if that's the case," Jasper said of his current workforce.
Jasper believes that losing those employees would very certainly result in their closure. Losing funding from Medicare and Medicaid is also not an option, since these programs get 80 to 85 percent of their financing from these sources.
Seminole Hospital District CEO Larry Gray said that a significant portion of the district's income comes from Medicare and Medicaid.
Gray estimates that about 70% of his employees have been vaccinated. While he supports the vaccination and believes it is safe, he does not believe that mandating it is the best course of action.
"I think the mandate is just a terrible message because if the vaccinations are working, why do you have to mandate people to get the vaccines?" he said. "What happens to individual choice and medical decisions between the patient and their doctor, which is all of the things that we're trying to support."
It seems as if every week, he said, the hospital is subjected to a whole new rule from a completely different agency, causing the health care industry to become more frustrated. Currently, no regulations have been issued by CMS, so Jasper believes the state is playing a waiting game to see what those rules will be and whether or not it will join the opposition to the requirements.
As per Epoch Times, besides the vaccine requirement for healthcare workers, Biden also said that he will order the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to implement a regulation requiring employees at businesses with 100 or more employees to get vaccinated or undergo a weekly COVID-19 test. Federal employees and contractors would also be required to get the shot, he said.
A regional hospital administrator in Upstate New York has reportedly said that the institution will be forced to temporarily shut its maternity section and will be unable to deliver infants as a consequence of a mandate issued by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Local media sources also reported on Lewis County Health System Chief Executive Officer Gerald Cayer's announcement of the resignation of six workers in the unit.
At a press conference on Sept. 10, Cayer said that if the service could be suspended and the emphasis shifted to hiring nurses who are up to date on vaccinations, the hospital would be able to resume delivering infants in Lewis County.
