Lewiston hospital’s staffing troubles prompt calls for Janet Mills to ease vaccine mandate – Bangor Daily News, 2021/10/08
A Lewiston hospital plans to close its neonatal intensive care unit and is making drastic contingency plans in the event that it loses staffers who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 with a mandate from Gov. Janet Mills set to go into effect at the end of the month.
The plan at Central Maine Medical Center is spurring local lawmakers to call on Mills to provide a testing opt-out to the mandate, something the Democratic governor has resisted so far. The hospital confirmed the worst-case scenario on Friday, saying 250 employees have no vaccination record with the hospital and 170 of them deal directly with patients.
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Under the contingency plan, the hospital would slash intensive care unit beds by 50 percent and drop the number of medical surgical beds by 40 percent. The hospital had brought up staffing concerns to lawmakers just over two weeks ago, Claxton said. He said the hospital has described longer wait times for emergency rooms and struggling to find space for patients.
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The mandate went into effect last Friday, but the state will not enforce it until Oct. 29. Workers have until Oct. 15 to get the Johnson & Johnson shot to comply with the mandate.
The game of chicken continues with patients caught in between…
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