Some healthcare employers are setting a hard line against exemptions, betting that will encourage more workers to get vaccinated. Others are being more permissive. And some are looking to hire workers who have left or been denied exemptions at other hospitals and clinics. The decisions add up to a major operational threat for some healthcare providers at a time when workers are in shorter supply than ever.

Thirty percent of workers at more than 2,000 hospitals across the country who were surveyed in September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were unvaccinated. Applied to a nationwide healthcare workforce of some 22 million according to the Census Bureau, that would equal nearly seven million who have yet to get inoculated…

Clark Fork Valley Hospital and Family Medicine Network in Plains, Mont., won’t be able to provide basic medical care in an area 90 miles from any larger hospital centers if more employees don’t get vaccinated, said Nick Lawyer, who practices family medicine there.

“It would mean a tremendous reduction in service,” he said.