Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville, about 60 miles northeast of Syracuse, will halt deliveries after Sept. 24, said Gerald Cayer, chief executive of the Lewis County Health System.
“We will not be able to attend to the service safely after September 24. The number of waivers received leaves us with no choice but to stop giving birth to babies at Lewis County General Hospital. I hope the Department of Health will work with us to support the service break instead of closing the maternity department, “Cayer said at a news conference Friday.
Six of the resignations were in the hospital’s maternity unit.
Cayer said there are 165 employees across the Lewis County health system who have not received a single dose of the vaccine.
“Our vaccine vaccination rate is now 73%, 464 people in the healthcare system are vaccinated,” Cayer said. “165 employees are not yet vaccinated. And it’s not clear what they will do,” Cayer said.
“We have two weeks left for 165 employees to receive the first dose of the vaccine. And at the same time, we need to develop contingency plans for services we believe are at risk. We can’t wait until the last minute. it has taken a long time, and it is a difficult deadline for us. “
Cayer said several other departments were at risk “based on the number of unvaccinated individuals in those departments.”
Contingency plans include reassigning nurses from management roles to their clinical roles, he said.
Asked what would be needed to keep the maternity ward running, Cayer said: “Our hope is that as we get closer, the numbers of vaccinated people will increase, fewer people will leave and maybe with a little luck, some of the people who has resigned will be reconsidered. “
Employees who resign or resign due to vaccination status will not be eligible for unemployment benefit, he said.
Cayer said hospital staff shortages were a problem prior to the coronavirus pandemic and he now wanted to focus on recruitment.
“If we can stop the service and now focus on recruiting vaccinated nurses, we will be able to rejoin the birth of babies here in Lewis County,” Cayer said.
Cayer said he supports the mandate of health workers and others.
“The mandate guarantees that we will have a healthy staff and that we are not responsible for transmission on or off our premises,” he said.
“The Covid-19 positivity trend line of the last two weeks is moving in the wrong direction and putting our community at risk. Lewis County has the highest positivity rate of 7 and 14 days in the New York State in the last three days, “he said Friday.
“Today is how Covid-19 transmission affects the health care system. The Lewis County health care system has five quarantined employees, five isolated employees and there are four community members hospitalized at LCGH who are Covid-positive. and they are sick enough to be admitted. “
The New York State Department of Health issued an order on August 16 ordering the vaccination of all health workers, including staff in “nursing homes, adult care and other centers of congregated attention ”, the 27 of September.
CNN’s Kelly Christ, Artemis Moshtaghian and Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.