One of New Jersey’s largest health systems has fired over 100 of its employees who refused to comply with its vaccination policy, the hospital network announced.
RWJBarnabas Health, which employs over 35,000 people in dozens of health facilities in the Garden State, axed 118 of its employees for refusing to get the jabs it says 99.7 of its employees received by the Oct. 15 deadline.
“Regrettably, and despite all best efforts, 118 staff members have not complied with the mandate and are no longer employees of RWJBarnabas Health, per our vaccine mandate policy,” a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement to NJ.com. “Sixty-two of those staff members were per-diem employees who worked occasional shifts across our organization.”
The hospital said that its operations will remain unaffected by the firings, which it had anticipated.
“Given the overall number of staff who have been separated from the organization is distributed across our numerous facilities, job types and work shifts, patient care will not be affected nor will there be any impact on the normal operations of our services,” the hospital said in the statement.
In July, the hospital system fired six supervisor-level employees who refused to get the vaccine by the June 30 deadline set at the time, setting a strict example for lower level employees.
New York State suspended or fired scores of its hospital workers who refused to get vaccinated last month per state mandate.