HOPEDALE, Ill. – U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap) says he thinks he knows part of the reason why local hospitals — especially rural ones — are having a hard time helping those affected by COVID-19 and other illnesses these days.
“The [COVID-19 vaccine] mandate…that’s caused people to leave the workforce, to pursue other opportunities, and the inflexibility on that is part of the labor shortage. And, that’s frustrating to them,” said LaHood.
LaHood Friday met with workers and administrators at the Hopedale Medical Complex, who say burnout is also a big factor.
Emily Whitson, Hopedale Medical Complex Chief Operating Officer, told LaHood the last time they posted a job opening for nurses, applications were next to none, at least early on.
Whitson says there has been more turnover than usual partly because of COVID, and to make matters worse, a lot of the help that’s been available is just too expensive.
“When I requested help from, I think it was, just straight from the state, they didn’t have any of the free agencies that they could pool for us,” said Whitson. “But, they gave me the price list if I wanted to pay for it. Paying $215 an hour for an RN is outrageously high, to the point of price-gouging when you’re trying to staff.”
Whitson says she doesn’t expext any of the newly-available federal help to trickle down to a hospital like hers.
LaHood says there may be other ways that help can be provided.
“I think we have to look at the federal level on how we incentivize, how we help, how we give relief, to rural hospitals — whether that’s tax incentives to the hospital to hire more nurses, to pay them more money,” said LaHood.
LaHood says one proposal in Congress would address a tax incentive through existing tax code, and he claims it has bi-partisan support.
Hopedale, by the way, says about three-quarters of their employees are vaccinated against COVID, while the remainder mostly got religious or medical exemptions.
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