Local government officials and the chief medical officers of Rochester's two major health care systems all say critical health care services will continue Monday, even if some of their staff should quit rather than get the COVID vaccine under the New York State mandate.
Monroe County Executive Adam Bello says that goes for UR Medicine, Rochester Regional Health and Monroe Community Hospital. He says medical staff at all three are approaching 99 percent vaccinated, although support staff are less so.
But the University of Rochester Medical Center says it will pause elective surgeries for the next two weeks because of staffing-related issues. Chief Medical Officer Doctor Michael Apostalakas says they're not canceling any...just not scheduling new ones for now. UR Medicine says the vast majority of its staff has been vaccinated, and 99 percent of the Strong Memorial Hospital staff is vaccinated. Dr. Apostolakas says that's more than 23,000 workers at UR Medicine hospitals vaccinated and those numbers are growing as the Monday deadline approaches.
His counterpart at Rochester Regional Health, Doctor Robert Mayo, says it's virtually the same at Rochester General and the other RRH hospitals. Both executives say there may be some slowdowns, but all critical care will continue. Dr. Apostolakas says they're used to working with short staffs because of the pandemic.
Finally, Monroe County Health Commissioner Doctor Michael Mendoza is urging health care workers who don't want to be vaccinated to "dig deep" before walking away from their careers. He says there's still plenty of time to review the science about the vaccine, and he said getting it is easy compared to what health care workers have done caring for COVID patients the past 18 months.