Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin is shown. The local health network stands to lose about 170 employees to a federal vaccine mandate unless more health care workers get vaccinated before Feb. 14.
If more health care workers don’t get vaccinated by Feb. 14, the county hospital would be forced to let go of about 170 employees.
Johnson Memorial Health and Franciscan Health Indianapolis are preparing to implement a federal vaccine mandate for health care facilities that get care reimbursements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Community Health Network put in place a vaccine mandate last year, so it was already in compliance when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that facilities receiving federal dollars must require all employees working on site at health care facilities to be vaccinated.
About 81% of Johnson Memorial’s roughly 900 employees are vaccinated at last count, said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO.
Franciscan officials were still working to count unvaccinated employees Thursday, said Joe Stuteville, spokesperson for Franciscan.
Employees at both Johnson Memorial and Franciscan are required to have at least one dose of a two-dose series or the single-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine by Feb. 14.
Johnson Memorial employees would be suspended without pay if they don’t submit proof of vaccination by that date, Dunkle said.
Franciscan officials have not made a decision yet on what would happen to employees who fail to comply, Stuteville said.
Both hospitals will require newly vaccinated employees to be fully vaccinated by March 15. If employees are not fully vaccinated by that date, they will be fired, per the mandate.
Losing that many employees in today’s tough hiring climate is something health care leaders are struggling with, Dunkle said. Though COVID-19 cases are trending down, the hospital has had 15 to 20 COVID-19 patients at a time in the past several weeks, as hospitalizations are usually about two weeks behind the peak during each wave of the pandemic.
“This keeps me up at night. This is my biggest fear,” Dunkle said. “Already we are short-staffed. We are trying to take care of record numbers of patients with less staff. Now we are facing letting go of staff.”
Johnson Memorial is hosting vaccine clinics in hopes that more employees will get vaccinated now that the mandate is a reality. Some have gotten the shot since the Supreme Court ruling, and Dunkle hopes more will be swayed before the deadline, he said.
The sheer number of employees that could be lost is concerning, but Dunkle hasn’t looked at what departments will be impacted most, he said. As the deadline approaches, he plans to take a deeper look at that, he said.
Health care workers will not find other work without a career change, but non-health care employees, such as those who work in environmental services, food services and office settings could easily find another job in the current market.
With that kind of competition, health care companies could have a hard time filling those jobs, Dunkle said.
Other health care facilities, including long-term care facilities, are also subject to the mandate.
As of Jan. 2, three Johnson County long-term care facilities stand to lose about half of their staffs. Just about 50% of employees are vaccinated at those three facilities, according to Indiana Department of Health data. The numbers may have increased since they were last updated on the state’s vaccine dashboard.
