Hospitals Confront the Fallout From Supreme Court Ruling on Vaccine Mandate
The New York Times
They could face more staff shortages, and workers and facilities could feel caught between opposing state and federal policies.
Just days after the Supreme Court’s decision about requiring health care workers to be vaccinated, the nation’s health care systems braced for the possibility of some resistance and more staff shortages — particularly in the states that banned mandates or had none.
The ruling lands not long after the one-year anniversary of widespread vaccine distribution in a country still largely split over how best to protect Americans during a pandemic that has produced multiple surges. In upholding the Biden administration’s requirement for millions of health care workers, the decision could wedge health care workers between opposing state and federal policies.
Local and regional hospitals, as well as multistate hospital chains, have wrestled with the resistance among some nurses and other staff to the Covid vaccines. Many of the larger hospital groups, including the Cleveland Clinic and HCA Healthcare, suspended their own vaccination mandates last month while they awaited the Supreme Court’s decision. And some are still assessing the conflict with murky anti-vaccine requirements imposed in Florida, Texas and some other states.
