An organization that represents the interests of long-term care facilities in Oklahoma says President Biden’s vaccine mandate for nursing home employees will wreak havoc on their staffing numbers.
Steven Buck is the CEO of Care Providers Oklahoma. He said at a press conference today the vaccine mandate will worsen an already bad staff shortage.
“This mandate will transform the current workforce shortage in the skilled nursing profession – where administrators report upward of 20% of jobs are going unfilled – into an untenable crisis that could result in facility closures and the complete abandonment of vulnerable seniors.”
Buck said 49% of long-term care nursing staff in Oklahoma are vaccinated. He said he has good reason to believe many staff will choose not to get vaccinated and quit, even though administrators are offering incentives to vaccinate.
“This conversation today is not on the merit of vaccines. Our ownership has worked very aggressively to try and move the vaccine number. We are very, very supportive of that.”
With a more severe staffing shortage, Buck said facilities will need something comparable to an emergency order from the governor to cope.
“If current workforce retention does not improve or this mandate leads to rapid deteriorations in the labor pool, skilled nursing facilities will need state and federal assistance that must include loosening regulations governing staff qualifications and training comparable to those provisions in Governor Stitt’s previous emergency declaration.”
Otherwise, facilities will have to close.
“Because of legally required staff to resident ratio, facilities that lose significant amounts of staff will need to close their doors or evict residents,” said Buck.
Those over the age of 65 remain at greatest risk from severe illness and death from COVID.