UMass Memorial fired 200 unvaccinated employees on Dec. 1 deadline

UMass Memorial Health Care's Memorial campus in Worcester

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UMass Memorial Health terminated approximately 200 unvaccinated employees on Wednesday, comprising roughly 1.5% of its 15,000-person workforce, said Dr. Andrew Karson, the healthcare provider’s chief medical officer.

“So far, there has been minimal impact to operations, and we anticipate there will be minimal impact,” Karson said Friday in an interview with WBJ.

Some services have been condensed in response to the staff reduction, such as radiology, which has been reduced from running at three sites to only two, he said, but he underscored the overall impact hasn’t been severe.

UMass Memorial announced in August it would put a vaccine mandate in place for staff effective Nov. 1. By that date, employees -- sometimes referred to as caregivers -- needed to have at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Those who were non-compliant received letters at their homes, emails, and outreach from managers and administration, Karson said. UMass held information sessions and operated a multilingual hotline where employees could connect with a clinician and ask questions about the available vaccines.

Those who remained non-compliant were placed on unpaid leave effective Nov. 15, Karson said. Several hundred people were impacted, many of whom were vaccinated in that time.

By Dec. 1, roughly 200 employees still had not been vaccinated, or else received religious or medical exemption.

Employees who resisted vaccination were scattered across the network and were not concentrated in any one department, Karson said, although terminations were approximate to the size of each facility, with UMass Medical Center in Worcester terminating more employees than the hospitals in Marlborough or Leominster, for example.

Still, Karson said, UMass remains open to hiring back terminated employees, should they opt to get their vaccines moving forward. Several terminated employees have already expressed interest in doing so, he said.

“It’s terrible that we need to terminate healthcare workers, employees, and caregivers for lack of compliance, and we’re trying to do it in the most supportive way we can,” Karson said. “Part of that support is if someone becomes compliant, if they get vaccinated, we’d be very happy to take them back, absolutely.”

The decision to terminate unvaccinated workers was a matter of keeping patients and staff safe, Karson said, pointing out the network cares for vulnerable population groups like cancer patients, or children who are or were ineligible to be vaccinated because of their age.