Hospital Chain: ‘Patently False’ That Staffing Shortage Due To Its Vaccine Mandate

In September 2021, about 400 workers left their jobs at the Henry Ford Health System’s Wyandotte hospital when management implemented a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees.

Since then, the corporation, which has five hospitals in metro Detroit metro and one in Jackson, has benefitted from two rounds of federal emergency assistance. This includes a medical assistance team dispatched in January due to severe staffing shortages at its Wyandotte facility. The hospital says the shortages are unrelated to the loss of employees that followed the vaccine mandate.

The Detroit Free Press reported on Oct. 5 that 400 Henry Ford workers walked off the job in September.

In response to suggestions that it is short-staffed because of the vaccine mandates, Henry Ford Health System stated: “The suggestion that our workforce vaccine requirement is connected to the staffing shortage is misguided and patently false. The 400 team members who voluntarily resigned last fall represented about 1% of our workforce of 33,000 – with many of those positions filled within days, as part of our ongoing aggressive strategy to recruit and retain healthcare workers. As health systems across the nation continue to manage through staffing challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, we are very grateful to the federal government and State of Michigan for bringing staffing support to multiple Michigan’s hospitals, including Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital.”

Henry Ford announced in June it would be the first Michigan hospital system to require its employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Staff members who were not fully vaccinated by Sept. 10 would be dismissed. Hundreds did make that choice not to vaccinate and left their jobs.

Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital is now in desperate need of support of employees, and its system is strained to a breaking point, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, quoting Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, in a Jan. 7 press release. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was also quoted, saying 30 members of a federal civilian Disaster Medical Assistant Team would arrive beginning Jan. 10 for two weeks.

Less than a week after the press release, Henry Ford announced it will receive a second round of help from federal health care workers, this time from the Department of Defense.

“We have systemic challenges with the incredible volume and very tired medical practitioners and vacancies that we’re looking to fill. That’s true of all health systems that have been in the middle of this surge,” said Bob Riney, chief operating officer of the Henry Ford Health System.

The Biden administration announced Nov. 4 the federal government would require COVID-19 vaccinations by Jan. 4 for all U.S. health care workers whose employers receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. On Jan. 13, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a federal vaccine mandate imposed on 17 million health care workers nationwide.