Workforce

Healthcare workers across the U.S. are hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and hospitals are making efforts to reduce concerns, according to NPR and the Los Angeles Times.

A worker in the emergency department at Kaiser Permanente San Jose (Calif.) Medical Center has died after a COVID-19 outbreak in which 44 staff members were infected, hospital officials told NBC Bay Area Jan. 3.

The number of U.S. workers calling in sick reached record numbers this year and may stay that way until COVID-19 vaccines are widely distributed, according to Bloomberg. 

As California struggles with an overwhelming surge of COVID-19 cases, 75 military medical personnel are being deployed across four of the state's hospitals, according to a Dec. 28 news release from U.S. Army North, the Joint Force Land Component Command…

While COVID-19 vaccine rollout has gone smoothly at many healthcare organizations, physicians and nurses at hospitals in Arizona, California, New York and elsewhere say vaccine distribution at their facilities has been chaotic and unfair, according to NPR. 

More than half a dozen physicians and nurses at New York area hospitals told The New York Times they're upset with how COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed at their hospitals. 

Many employees at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., have reservations about taking the COVID-19 vaccine, and CEO Anita Jenkins is trying to get workers to follow her lead by getting vaccinated, according to CNN. 

A week that began with great optimism and excitement as hospitals received their first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine ended with reports of growing tension in at least two prestigious organizations as employees with limited patient exposure received their first…

Employers can legally require staff to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to their place of work, according to updated guidelines from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Renton, Wash.-based Providence is offering new benefits for workers who receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the 51-hospital health system said in a Dec. 17 statement shared with Becker's.