Some of the well-known hospital chains in United States have temporarily dropped their vaccine mandate. There is legal uncertainty looming around federal requirement that the nation’s 17 million health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Soaring Labor Costs

A federal judge has temporarily halted Biden administration’s mandate that the healthcare workers will get the vaccine shots. Therefore, many hospital operators are dropping the vaccine mandates as they are uncertain. HCA Healthcare Inc. HCA and Tenet Healthcare Corp. THC  as well as nonprofits AdventHealth and the Cleveland Clinic are dropping the mandates. In addition, labor costs are getting higher and higher. Hospitals are struggling to retain enough nurses, technicians and even janitors to handle higher hospitalizations in recent months.

Healthcare Workers Burnout

Vaccine mandate is also playing its role as a key factor is constraining the supply of healthcare workers. This is stated by hospital executives, public health authorities and nursing groups. Therefore, hospitals across United States were struggling to find workers specially nurses even prior to pandemic. The shortages were getting higher by burnout the workers are facing in pandemic times. Recently, thousand of nurses have left the industry or lost their jobs as they refused vaccination.

Suspected Rise in COVID Cases

The suspension may cause a rise in the COVIS numbers specially during the holiday season. Therfore, suspending the mandate requirements will make it tougher for the hospitals to meet the federal government’s deadline for vaccinating all eligible staff. Federal officials are appealing a Louisiana judge’s decision to halt their ruling and the case is likely to go to Supreme Court.

The exact number of workers abandoning the mandate is not clear. However, many states, like California and New York, and local governments, like Philadelphia’s, adopted their own edicts. HCA specified that it would continue the requirement at hospitals in places where there is a state mandate. Various large hospitals imposed their own requirement earlier this year after a sharp increase in the Delta variant cases. In short, about 40 percent of the nation’s hospitals mandated vaccinations for staff members.

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