Texas Hospital CEO Warns It May Stop Delivering Babies Over Biden Vaccine Mandate

The head of the Goodall-Witcher hospital in rural Texas expressed concerns that the facility may have to stop delivering babies due to a recent vaccine mandate handed down by the Biden administration stipulating that healthcare workers at Medicare- and Medicaid-funded hospitals get the vaccine.

Adam Willmann, the CEO, said that some experienced nurses are not vaccinated and don’t plan on getting the shot. Some of the nurses, he suggested, work in the hospital’s maternity ward.

“They are also near retirement age and a few of them have already voiced that, ‘I will just retire,'” Willmann told NPR. “And then a couple other nurses said, ‘Well, I’ll just go work for my husband’s construction company.'”

Willmann said he has been pushing hard to get all of his 250 employees to take one of the vaccines, noting that so far, vaccination rates are at around 70 percent.

Despite mandates, “We’re kind of at that point where everybody that’s willing to get it, got it,” he said.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced sweeping mandates for hospitals, federal workers and contractors, and employees at private businesses with 100 or more employees. But the administration still has not finalized details of any of the mandates, coming as some GOP-led states have threatened lawsuits.

Tom Mee, the CEO of a hospital North Country Healthcare in New Hampshire, said that it’s likely that other rural hospitals will have issues with staffing over the mandate.

“It’s... (Read more)

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