Northwell Fired 1,400 Unvaccinated Workers. Did Patient Care Suffer?
Many healthcare providers across New York state fired hundreds of workers because of the state-imposed vaccine mandate and are experiencing staff shortages. But while Northwell Health, the largest health system in the state, made headlines this month for firing 1,400 of its unvaccinated workers, Northwell officials, employees and patients say the firings haven’t created problems for the massive system, which has more than 76,000 employees.
“Fortunately … the number of people who chose to not get vaccinated was very small in the grand scheme of our health system,” said Joseph Kemp, Northwell’s assistant vice president of public relations, in a phone interview with Labor New York. “A lot of people said it was sudden, but people were signaled and had a lot of time to sit and think about it.”
Labor New York spoke to health workers at Northwell to ask whether their workload was affected by the firings; many said that there was little impact.
“My department was not impacted because we are all vaccinated. I know some other departments have had to let go of people, but personally I only know of one person — a physician assistant who didn’t want to get vaccinated due to religious reasons,” said Thi Le, 38, a physician assistant who has worked at Northwell for over 10 years.
Kemp said the company is taking measures to fill vacancies: “We are using temporary agencies to fill the immediate roles and can hire up to 250 people a week.”
The requirement didn’t meet universal acclaim, though. “The firings didn’t affect my work, but I don’t agree with the mandate,” said Jessica Ford, 43, a medical assistant at Northwell. “If these workers were putting their lives at risk during the height of the pandemic and kept themselves safe, then they should’ve been allowed to continue working.”
Kemp said the company “spent time individually and gave everyone the opportunity to be sure of their decision.” But Northwell didn’t use the resources offered by the state to meet staffing needs. Instead, he said, “we are using local temporary agencies and partners we have had for years.”
Leonie Stephenson, 50, a registered nurse at Northwell, said that “the hospital tried their very best to give them more time to see if workers would get vaccinated. Co-workers in my department decided they didn’t want to get it and they left. Workers had a choice, and some still refused to get the vaccine.”
There are some impacts, though. “My workload hasn’t increased, it has only been spread out a little,” said Jason Gaspar, 32, a medical assistant at Northwell. “Before we spent 10 minutes per patient, now we spend 20 minutes per patient. Nobody from my floor was fired because most of us were vaccinated back in January, February.”
And some vaccinated workers feel bad for their fired colleagues. “They aren’t going to get money from unemployment benefits, so they will have to get the vaccine for a new job,” said Johanny Tamayo, 48, a housekeeper at Northwell Health. “It made no sense for them to leave their jobs for this. Three or four housekeepers in my team had to be fired because they refused the vaccine.”
Several patients and families of patients said they haven’t seen evidence that the firings affected quality of care.
“I think they take care of you the same way, and I have been coming here since the early 1990s for treatment for my legs,” said Yolanda Trevino, 81. She chuckled as she said, “I like it when you ring those bells and they come almost right away.”
Fabiola Treyo, 50, a domestic cleaner, said that her daughter had been admitted three days prior as “doctors are trying to figure out what condition of the brain she has. The quality of care has been good and they pay attention to my daughter.”
While several major hospitals in New York City did not reveal exact numbers of firings, Northwell was more candid about its data.
When Labor New York asked why, Kemp said, “We’ve always had a reputation for being transparent. … It is important for us to not hide behind any veils.
“This was not a campaign to fire people, this was a campaign to vaccinate people.”
