PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s two biggest hospital companies are boasting employee vaccination rates surpassing 95% just days ahead of the Oct. 1 state-enforced mandate for all health care workers to get inoculated against COVID-19.
Both Care New England Health System and Lifespan Corp. said on Wednesday that they will be operating in compliance with the mandate announced on Aug. 10 by Gov. Daniel J. McKee, requiring all state-licensed health care facilities to require employees to get vaccinated before entering starting Oct. 1.
“Care New England’s health care workforce has passed 95% vaccinated,” said James E. Fanale, CEO and president of Care New England. “This number continues to climb by the day and the hour.”
Fanale said he’s confident that as of the Oct. 1 deadline, Care New England will be fully compliant with the state’s vaccine mandate. This comes after Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the R.I. Department of Health, recently announced that health care facilities facing a “risk to quality of care” could retain unvaccinated workers for 30 days beyond the deadline, if needed.
“As health care workers, we are committed to providing an environment that is safe and healthy for patients, as well as staff,” Fanale said. “As of Oct. 1, any Care New England health care worker who is not vaccinated will not be allowed to work. Our health care system has contingency plans in place should any health care worker choose not to work after the deadline.”
A spokesperson for Care New England, which operates Butler Hospital, Kent Hospital, Women & Infants Hospital and VNA of Care New England, said the company employs 7,500 people, but did not immediately respond to emailed questions about the company’s contingency plans or how quickly employee vaccinations have progressed recently.
At Lifespan, which operates hospitals including Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam Hospital, and Newport Hopsital, spokesperson Kathleen Hart said 96% of the company’s 16,500 employees are vaccinated or partially vaccinated. Hart said Lifespan is “hopeful we will continue to get more employees vaccinated” in the coming days.
Lifespan employees who have not gotten vaccinated by the Oct. 1 deadline will be “separated from employment,” Hart said, but they’ll have an opportunity to return if they get vaccinated. Nonetheless, the loss of employees will be difficult for Lifespan, as hospitals throughout the country were already facing staffing problems for other reasons, she said.
“We will welcome back any employee who decides to get vaccinated after Oct. 1,” Hart said. “In a workforce of over 16,000, and a 96% vaccination rate, it’s a small number of employees who have not been vaccinated overall, so the impact to each hospital or department is relatively small, but nonetheless concerning as every employee is important, especially given the current staff shortage.”
“The vaccine requirement just further complicates a difficult situation,” Hart added. “Nursing has always been a profession in high demand. ‘COVID burnout’ and pandemic-related stresses, as well as reassessment of personal priorities, have contributed significantly to employee attrition, and some are leaving the health care field altogether. We remain hopeful that employees who have not yet taken action will choose to receive the vaccine today or tomorrow.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
