Georgia’s nursing and healthcare staff shortages have reached “crisis” levels after hospital networks in the state mandated that employees take the COVID-19 vaccine during the summer.
Many news outlets and healthcare executives are blaming stress and long hours for the shortages, claiming that healthcare staffers are leaving their jobs because they are overworked.
“What that means is the staff who are left are exhausted,” Katie Smith Sloan, CEO of LeadingAge told The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Sloan’s organization, a nonprofit, represents thousands of elder care providers around the country.
“They are working probably longer shifts with little relief,” she said. “What it also means is that there are a lot of people who aren’t able to access care when they need it. We have a growing number of underserved older adults in need of services and supports. That’s a huge problem.”
In an August 20 piece, AJC bemoaned the state’s nursing shortage, which it also described as a “crisis,” again blaming the workload from the pandemic.
One of the hospitals that story mentioned, Piedmont Healthcare, over the summer alerted employees that it would force them to choose between vaccination or termination, a rule that went into effect on October 1.
That was part of a federal policy enacted by the Biden administration for all healthcare workers at Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities.
Some hospitals refused religious exemptions to their employees.
An estimated one percent of hospital workers have quit their jobs or been fired due to the vaccine mandates. While that percentage is small, it adds up to thousands of hospital jobs lost.
The major hospital systems in Georgia, Piedmont Healthcare, Wellstar Health System and Emory Healthcare, brushed off employee losses due to the vaccine mandate, refusing to say just how many employees were fired or quit because of mandates.
Piedmont described its losses as “minimal,” while Wellstar said “an overwhelming majority” of its employees were vaccinated.
Some employers struggled with implementing the mandates.
When Wellstar announced its vaccine mandate in August, it erroneously sent medical exemption emails to a host of its employees, even some who did not request an exemption. It quickly rescinded those exemptions.
“This included team members who had not requested a medical exemption, as well as team members who had received a prior response [to their exemption request],” Wellstar said. “We were able to quickly identify the issue and begin personal outreach to every team member impacted. We recognize the importance of the decision to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and truly regret the mistake. We have apologized to our team members for any confusion this may have caused.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
FOOLS DONT GO BACK TO YOUR ORIGINAL JOBS, GO TO THE PEOPLE THAT WANT YOU. Even if they beg you. Or they say the govt made them do it. NO IT DIDNT……THEY GET PAID BY BIG PHARMA TO PUSH LIES, FALSE INFO, DO NOT TREAT THEIR PATIENTS PROPERLY. WHY WOULD HEY LISTEN TO FAUCI, when told only to use REMDISIVIR, which killed lots of people and they knew it, and labeled deaths as covid when it wasnt, and on and on….YOU REALLY WANT TO WORK FOR PEOPLE LIKE THIS. THEY WILL DO IT AGAIN IF BIG PHARMA TELLS THEM TO. These ARE PEOPLE NOT TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH. MONEY RULES THEM, THEY FORGOT THEIR OATH, THEIR DUTY. FORGET THEM