Mississippi's largest hospital requires staff to be fully vaccinated for coronavirus

All but .17% of the workforce at the University of Mississippi Medical Center have completed a coronavirus vaccine series to comply with the hospital’s vaccine mandate. The mandate took effect at the start of the month, and hospital officials say most employees complied with the order. Dr. Alan Jones with the medical center says one person was terminated, another resigned, and 15 others are under suspension with a timeframe to become compliant.

Dr. Jones says “We have about 4% of our workforce that had gotten an accommodation. So medical or religious accommodation. And then the rest of them have been vaccinated, so that’s going to be approximately 9,000 employees.”

Dr. Jones says the hospital does allow some employees to be exempt from the mandate due to religious or health reasons.

Staffing shortages are affecting healthcare providers across the state, as other out of state hospitals are offering higher pay to meet demands for coronavirus care. Dr. Jones says the hospital is attempting to offer more competitive pay, however he says the hospitals is unable to match travel-nursing prices.

“We have a large number of boarded patients in our ER this morning. I believe we had 26," says Dr. Jones. "We will start to see due to staff shortages some possibilities that we’ll have to close some beds.”

Dr. Jones is also encouraging Mississippians to get a flu vaccine to prevent a possible “twindemic.”