A total of 1,400 employees of New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health either resigned or were terminated for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a spokesperson confirmed to Becker's Oct. 4.
The departures — announced one week after New York state's mandate took effect requiring healthcare workers get at least one shot by Sept. 27 — included about two dozen leaders at the management level, or above, and represent under 2 percent of Northwell's employees. With the departures, Northwell is reporting a 100 percent vaccinated workforce.
"Northwell has taken a rapid, aggressive approach to move successfully toward full vaccination compliance while maintaining continuity of care and ensuring that our high standard of patient safety is not compromised in any way. We thank the vast majority of our employees who did the right thing and got vaccinated," the system said in a statement.
Northwell added that the system "regrets losing any employee under such circumstances," but "believes that having a fully vaccinated workforce is an important measure in our duty to protect the health and safety of our staff, our patients and the communities we serve."
Northwell, a 23-hospital system and the largest healthcare provider in New York state, has about 76,000 employees. It is among the health systems in the U.S. that have terminated workers for choosing not to get vaccinated.