Seven takeaways:
- Mr. Inzina said the mandate will create hardships for his system, which employs more than 28,000 employees. Nearly half (44 percent) of BayCare’s staff opted out of getting vaccinated.
- Mr. Inzina said he encourages his staff to get vaccinated to limit the spread of COVID-19 within employees’ families and maintain a healthy workforce. However, workforce challenges make it difficult to risk losing staff.
- “This onslaught of patients comes as our industry’s workforce is already stretched from the crisis,” Mr. Inzina said. “Every local hospital leader would tell you the same thing: It is the most severe staffing challenges we have seen in our lifetimes and relief is not yet in sight.”
- A vaccine mandate could create a negative effect on healthcare access in Central Florida, where his hospitals are based, according to Mr. Inzina.
- “In recent months, as our hospitals filled with record numbers of sick patients, we knew we risked alienating a not-insignificant number of our team members,” he said. “If even a small fraction of our non-vaccinated team members choose to exit the workforce rather than get vaccinated, we’d have even fewer team members to take care of patients, COVID or otherwise.”
- According to Mr. Inzina, if employees chose to depart, it could have a direct effect on patient care. With fewer nurses, each nurse will have to take on more patients. With less staff, wait times at the emergency room will be longer. A smaller team means each test result will take longer to read.
- Mr. Inzina emphasized that regardless of the added challenges, BayCare will comply with the vaccine mandate on the timeline given by the federal government.
