Johnson Memorial Health’s emergency department waiting area is nearly empty on Dec. 29, as the hospital was overfull and on diversion.
DAILY JOURNAL FILE PHOTOS
About 25 Johnson Memorial Health employees are suspended without pay today, and will likely lose their jobs if they don’t get a COVID-19 vaccination or apply for an exemption to a federal vaccine mandate.
The Franklin hospital and all other health care companies across the country implemented the federal vaccine mandate that is now required of all health care facilities that get care reimbursements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
About 81% of Johnson Memorial employees were vaccinated in mid-January, putting about 170 of the hospital’s 877 employees at risk of losing their jobs. Since then, most have taken at least one dose of the vaccine to retain employment, said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO.
Since many of the 25 employees are part-time, Dunkle hopes at least some of them might still submit documentation to retain their employment, including proof of vaccination or a medical or religious exemption, he said.
Of the 877 employees, 70 received exemptions, Dunkle said.
Just one of the unvaccinated employees has a patient-facing role, so patients are not expected to notice a difference in the quality of their care. Various non-patient-facing departments are down one or a few employees, he said.
“The good thing is the hospital is fully operational. We are capable of taking care of the patients in our community,” Dunkle said.
Still, the loss of any employees will deepen the hospital’s hiring deficit, he said.
“That is a worry. We’ve got many open positions in the organization. So we will continue to do what we’ve done — post jobs on our website, reach out and try to recruit by word of mouth from one happy employee to another,” Dunkle said.
Even before the mandate, the competitive market and low unemployment rates combined made filling open positions difficult, he said.
Franciscan Health officials were still working to count unvaccinated employees Tuesday afternoon, so numbers were not available by press time.
Community Health Network, including Community Hospital South, has had a system-wide vaccine mandate in place for several months, so employees were not affected by the federal mandate.
