A new survey by the Home Care Association of New York (HCA) portends a potential home care disaster when that state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for home care workers takes effect in one week.
The survey conducted two weeks ago of 189 urban and rural home healthcare agencies found more than 12,200 registered nurses, therapists, home health and personal care workers and support staff intend to forgo the vaccine and resign from their jobs. The association said the shortage of those workers could compromise the care of 17,780 patients across New York State.
HCA President Al Cardillo told McKnight’s Home Care Daily that applying those statistics to his association’s remaining 1,400 members paints a worrisome picture, especially in rural communities.
“If you lose three nurses at a rural agency, you might not be able to operate the agency,” Cardillo said.
Rural situation
That is a worst-case scenario for the Community Health Center in rural Johnstown, New York. The nonprofit agency provides in-home care to approximately 140 patients in seven upstate communities. Seven of the agency’s 18 nurses, therapists and home health aides are still unvaccinated. Executive director Millie Ferriter told McKnight’s Home Care Daily at least five of the seven employees have told her they definitely won’t get the shots and will leave their jobs.
“What this is going to do is limit our ability to provide our mission and our mission is to be that community service for care, no matter who you are or what type of insurance you have,” Ferriter said. “Our patients are the sickest of the sick and we take care of them.”
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) issued a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in August, about a month before the Biden administration announced a federal vaccine mandate. New York’s mandate covering healthcare workers in hospitals, doctors offices and long-term care facilities took effect last Monday. Its mandate for home care and home healthcare workers takes effect next Thursday.
Vaccination uptick?
Threats of lost jobs without unemployment benefits seem to have persuaded many New York healthcare workers to get vaccinated. According to the New York Times, 92% of hospital and nursing home staff had received at least one shot before Monday’s deadline. The week prior, 82% of those workers had been vaccinated.
But Ferriter is skeptical that healthcare workers in her area will be convinced to get the vaccine. She said burnout from the pandemic was already wearing on many healthcare workers, and now threats from the state are forcing some to rethink their careers entirely.
“I think if we just left them alone, they would have come over to the other side of getting that vaccine, but now we’ve stepped on their rights,” Ferriter said.
This article originally appeared on McKnight's Senior Living
