Last year’s healthcare heroes are today’s villains.
Last week Novant Health, a massive healthcare network with hospitals, outpatient centers and physician clinics suspended hundreds of employees for refusing to get the Covid vaccine.
Nearly 400 employees were suspended last Tuesday and given five days to comply with the vaccine mandate or be terminated.
“They will have an opportunity to comply over a five day, unpaid suspension period,” Novant said in a statement. “If a team member remains non-compliant after this suspension period, he or she will have their employment with Novant Health terminated.”
On Monday, Novant Health announced it fired 175 employees for refusing to get Covid jab in largest-ever mass terminations.
More than 200 suspended employees complied, but 175 didn’t so they got the chop, according to Novant Health director Megan Rivers.
Update: Last week, nearly 200 additional team members came into compliance with vaccine mandate, increasing that rate across @NovantHealth to over 99%.
— Megan Rivers (@MeganMRivers) September 27, 2021
The Washington Post reported:
A North Carolina-based hospital system announced Monday that roughly 175 unvaccinated employees were fired for failing to comply with the organization’s mandatory coronavirus vaccination policy, the latest in a series of health-care dismissals over coronavirus immunization.
[Novant spox] Megan Rivers told The Washington Post that more than 99 percent of the system’s roughly 35,000 employees have followed the mandatory vaccination program. She said in a statement that Novant Health was “thrilled” those who chose to be vaccinated have given patients and visitors “better protection against COVID-19 regardless of where they are in our health system.”
The mass termination of unvaccinated hospital system employees is among the largest of its kind to date. More than 150 health-care workers who did not comply with a vaccine mandate at Houston Methodist — one of the first health systems to require the coronavirus shots — were fired or resigned in June after a federal judge upheld the policy. ChristianaCare, a Delaware health system, announced this week that 150 employees were fired for not adhering to its vaccine mandate.
“We stand by our decision to make the vaccine mandatory as we have a responsibility to protect our patients, visitors and team members, regardless of where they are in our health system,” Novant Health said in a statement. “We couldn’t be prouder of our team members who made the choice to receive the covid-19 vaccine and remain part of our team at Novant Health.”
Source: TGP
