NEWS
Wednesday, september 29, 2021
HermIstOnHeraLd.COm • A9
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald, File
Tracy Wart, an infection prevention nurse at St. Anthony
Hospital in Pendleton, draws up a dose of the Moderna
COVID-19 vaccine during the hospital’s first round of staff
vaccinations on Dec. 28, 2020.
Crisis in the making?
By BRYCE DOLE
eO media
Eastern Oregon’s health
care system could see a mass
exodus of workers come Oct.
18, the deadline for Gov.
Kate Brown’s COVID-19
vaccine mandate.
More than a quarter of all
health care workers in Uma-
tilla, Union and Morrow coun-
ties remain unvaccinated,
according to the Oregon
Health Authority. All would
be fired or forced to resign
under the mandate.
“It’s like a big game of
chicken,” said Dr. Jon Hitz-
man, Umatilla County’s public
health officer. “Who’s going
to relent first?”
Hospitals across the three
counties say they are working
to comply with the mandate,
but none would disclose any
specific plans for how they
would adjust or alter oper-
ations if there is a shortage
of workers.
“We understand this new
requirement has been wel-
comed by some and has
caused great concern for oth-
ers,” said Mardi Ford, spokes-
person for Grande Ronde Hos-
pital in La Grande. “While we
value every one of our employ-
ees and support their right to
make that choice; as a private,
not-for-profit Critical Access
Hospital, we must follow this
government directive to con-
tinue caring for our commu-
nity. We do not want to lose a
single member of our team.”
Regional hospital offi-
cials in recent months have
said they already were strug-
gling with a shortage of work-
ers. Staff have said they are
exhausted after the delta vari-
ant ripped through the region,
hospitalizing large swaths of
unvaccinated people. In Uma-
tilla County, the unvaccinated
have accounted for about 49
out of every 50 hospitaliza-
tions this year, according to
county data.
Hitzman said he’s con-
cerned a mass layoff would
only exacerbate the prob-
lems the health care system
is facing during the latest
pandemic surge.
“It’s going to have a mas-
sive impact on the system,”
said Hitzman, a vocal vaccine
proponent who is opposed to
the mandate. “We’re already
all stretched thin. If you hap-
pen to get into an automobile
accident, you have to hope
that they have a bed for you
in the hospital. If I have a heart
attack, are they going to have
a bed for me in the hospital?
Are they going to have a nurs-
ing staff to care for me?”
Hospitals mum on
contingency plans
CHI St. Anthony Hospital
in Pendleton reported 30% of
its health care workers remain
unvaccinated. Harold Geller,
the president of CHI St.
Anthony, said the hospital is
working on contingency plans
for the mid-October deadline.
“As is true for most hospi-
tals, we are concerned about
the number of staff electing
not to become vaccinated,”
Geller said. “Our entire staff
is committed to providing high
quality care as safely as pos-
sible. They’ve done a terrific
job throughout the past year
and a half. Each staff member
is putting serious thought into
this matter and it is our hope
that we retain all staff.
Caitlin Cozad, a spokesper-
son for Good Shepherd Med-
ical Center in Hermiston, said
the hospital has “contingency
plans in place to remain fully
operational” and is “ensuring
we have adequate staffing to
meet the needs of our commu-
nity.” She added the hospital
is “on track to be fully com-
pliant with the state mandate.”
Neither Ford nor Cozad
would disclose how many
of their health care workers
are vaccinated.
But state data shows in
Umatilla County, 36% of
health care workers remain
unvaccinated. In Union
County, that number is 26%.
In Morrow County, it’s 28%.
Kevin Mealy, a spokes-
person for the Oregon Nurses
Association, said in a written
statement the union is calling
upon “all nurses and health
care workers to get vacci-
nated before the Oct. 18
deadline or to fill out the nec-
essary paperwork for a med-
ical or deeply held religious
belief exception.”
If they don’t, they could
be fired.
“Losing even one nurse
from a patient’s bedside will
deepen Oregon’s nurse staff-
ing crisis and endanger com-
munity health,” Mealy said.
“ONA expects hospital and
health care system CEOs to
follow federal labor law and
sit down with nurses to bar-
gain the impact of workplace
vaccination policies and find
ways at-risk health care work-
ers can continue contributing
during the surge.”
Come Visit Us At Our
New Location!
630 S. Hwy 395
next to Obie’s Express
and across from
Tom Denchel’s Ford
dealership
Cases increase among
hospital staff
Good Shepherd from July
21 to Sept. 15 reported 54
COVID-19 cases among staff,
according to state data. Grande
Ronde’s staff from July 15 to
Sept. 1 had 35 cases. And staff
at CHI St. Anthony from Aug.
19 and Sept. 3 had 10 cases.
Several hospitals say they
have seen an increase in vac-
cinations among health care
workers since the mandate was
announced.
The vaccine mandate came
in response to the rapidly ris-
ing number of COVID-19
cases statewide as the delta
variant surge filled Oregon’s
hospitals almost entirely with
unvaccinated people. To curb
the spread, Brown announced
the mandate for health care
workers and teachers in
August, when infection was
at its peak.
But Hitzman said he
believes the state is push-
ing the region’s health care
system into a lose-lose sit-
uation. He said health care
workers should get vaccinated
because they work around
sick patients, but added those
who have built their careers
in the field may have little to
fall back on.
“What are they going to do,
just change professions?” he
said, adding, “For most of us,
we’ve been deeply ingrained
in our professions. It’s not like
we can just go do something
else … It’s going to create
financial hardship for those
individuals.”
In addition, he said the
deadline falls at an espe-
cially critical time for Uma-
tilla County. Two weeks ago,
tens of thousands of people
flooded into the county for
the Pendleton Round-Up,
an event where most people
were maskless and there was
no proof of vaccination or neg-
ative COVID-19 test required.
Health care workers for
months have voiced con-
cerns about the potential for
infection to increase after
this event. Hitzman noted if
a surge were to occur, it would
be within two to three weeks
of the event — right around
when the mid-October vac-
cine deadline occurs.
“We’ll see what the num-
bers are over the next two to
three weeks,” Hitzman said.
“But if we see a major spike,
I’m not going to be surprised.
I’m going to breathe a sigh of
relief if we don’t.”
KEEP IT
LOCAL