Healthcare Roundup: NY Hospitals Suspending Unvaccinated Workers, Panic Buttons for MO Hospital Staff & More

NY Hospitals Push Unvaccinated Workers toward Vaccination with Suspensions:

Hospitals in upstate New York have started placing employees on unpaid leave for failing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare workers.

The tactic appears to be having an impact on at least some of the unvaccinated workers. Last Monday, Albany Medical Center suspended 204 of its over 11,000 employees, who now face termination unless they comply with the vaccine mandate within seven days. But a few days before the state’s Sept. 27 vaccination deadline, Albany Med had 253 unvaccinated workers.

The number of unvaccinated employees at St. Peter’s Health Partners, which also employs roughly 11,000 people in the region, dropped from 400 to 322 the morning after the state deadline passed. And Glen Falls Hospital placed 44 unvaccinated workers on unpaid leave last Tuesday, which is about 160 fewer than the number of unvaccinated employees at the hospital two weeks ago. (TIMES UNION [ALBANY])

MO Hospital Staff to Begin Wearing Panic Buttons Due to Pandemic-Related Attacks:

Nurses and other staff who work in the emergency room and inpatient hospital rooms at Cox Medical Center Branson will begin wearing ID badges with panic buttons by the end of the year. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of assaults at the hospital tripled, from 40 in 2019 to 123 in 2020, and injuries to healthcare staff increased from 17 to 78.

Dave Dillon, the spokesman for the Missouri Hospital Association, said that while assaults on healthcare workers have long been a concern, COVID-19 “has changed the dynamic in a number of ways,” including the imposition of restrictions on hospital access for patients’ relatives in order to slow the spread of the virus. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

DE Healthcare System Fires 150 Workers for Violating COVID-19 Vaccine Order:

ChristianaCare has fired 150 of its employees - many of whom were “part-time or casual employees,” according to a spokesperson - for failing to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate it announced in July. The not-for-profit healthcare system is Delaware’s largest private employer, providing over 14,000 jobs. (NEWS JOURNAL [WILMINGTON])

RI Healthcare Workers Sue to Block Vaccine Mandate on Religious Grounds:

Four Rhode Island healthcare workers have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers because it provides no religious exemption. New York imposed a similar mandate, but it has been blocked by a federal court. (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL)

RI Joins States Objecting to Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Settlement:

In filing an appeal in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York last week, Rhode Island joined the growing list of states objecting to the bankruptcy settlement with Purdue Pharma over the drug maker’s role in the national opioid crisis. California, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington have filed separate appeals to the plan, any one of which, if successful, could undo the entire multistate deal. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK