By Olivia Belanger
KEENE SENTINEL SOURCE
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — The Brattleboro Retreat is losing several employees due to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate implemented for staff members earlier this month, an official confirmed this week.
As of Tuesday, five full-time employees and six traveling staff members are subject to termination from the psychiatric and addiction treatment center, according to interim spokesman Peter Albert.
The Retreat had about 430 employees as of Monday, he said.
“Our first priority is to ensure a safe environment for our patients and staff,” he said in an email.
The Retreat announced the mandate after three patients and three staff members tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month. The outbreak, then-spokesman Jeff Kelliher said, demonstrated the “need for an organization-wide mandate for COVID vaccination.”
Employees were required to get their first dose by Oct. 18.
As of Monday, the outbreak had affected 14 people, according to Bennett Truman, spokesman for the Vermont Department of Health. No deaths have been attributed to the outbreak, he added.
The department considers outbreaks active until more than 28 days have elapsed without a new case, Truman noted, which as of Tuesday would be Nov. 14 for the Retreat.
He did not know how many of the cases were staff members or patients, and Albert did not provide that information in his emailed answers to a reporter.
Albert also didn’t specify which departments the staff who didn’t comply with the mandate worked in, aside from that they were in both inpatient and outpatient services.
As of Monday, 14 full-time staff members were slated to be terminated, but Albert said the number dropped down to five on Tuesday because those workers decided to get the vaccine after all.
“We are very pleased that individuals are re-thinking their choice, getting vaccinated and showing proof of vaccination which allows them to come back to work,” he said. “We very much appreciate people recognizing the importance of getting vaccinated as a method of ensuring our patients and their fellow staff members are safe.”
Moving forward with fewer employees — amid ongoing staffing shortages across the nation — Albert said the Retreat is trying to adjust its operations to recruit more workers.
This includes focusing on traveling employees in the interim to keep as many inpatient beds open as possible, hiring another recruiter within the human resources department and also trying to increase compensation, according to Albert.
The Retreat is one of many health-care organizations nationwide that have implemented a COVID-19 vaccination mandate in recent months to help protect patients and staff.
Locally, this includes Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health system — including Cheshire Medical Center in Keene — and Genesis Healthcare, which owns several area nursing homes.
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