Important Updates From Our Family To Yours
Date:9/20/2021
To:NYS and Federal Governmental and Regulatory Leadership
From:Joseph Murabito on behalf of my entire organization
Subj:Vaccine Mandate and the psychology of people
For more than a year and a half we have been fighting COVID-19 as well as our regulatory leadership.
Healthcare workers everywhere have been in the crossfire of heated political debate and conflict in addition to managing
one of the most significant pandemics in recent history.
We are tired. We’ve been quarantined. We’ve been restricted. We’ve been surveyed and fined for sending reports in 1
minute late. We’ve lost friends, associates and family members.
We’ve had cotton swabs stuffed up our noses weekly and in some cases daily for months. We’ve worn protective
equipment to keep ourselves and our residents and patients safe.
We’ve worked long hours month after month. Our family and social lives have been disrupted and intruded upon.
As a profession we largely believe in this vaccine and its positive effects on public health.
Many of us however are scared and hesitant. We have grown suspect of our leadership due to the scandals, conflicts, and
polarization we see and feel everyday all around us.
We need time. We need a different approach. We need to trust again.
The execution of the current vaccine mandate is heavy handed and represents the final and most intrusive regulatory
action to date. In addition to all the external intrusions we’ve endured as well as the testing which has caused us minimal
but frequent internal intrusions, we are all being forced to take something inside our bodies....which is the ultimate
intrusion. Vaccines are not new to the world....but the context of the COVID pandemic and all its moving parts and
politics, makes this vaccine mandate very different in the eyes of many.
It may be this ultimate intrusion is the key to our collective public health. As the author if this memorandum, I can say I
am a supporter of the vaccine. I am vaccinated. My family is vaccinated. However, I am also a supporter of people. We
must support our people’s perspectives and nurture them, especially on the heels of such adversity. We must find a
better and more supportive way to manage this public health effort. Do not place this burden further on our health care
workers. Allow a testing and PPE option for a period of time to allow for our workforce to strengthen and the collective
trust to build.
We are here to care for others and we need our health care workers in full force to accomplish our work. We need better
regulatory and legislative support.
Date:9/20/2021
To:All staff members, leadership and partners
From:Joseph Murabito, President and Managing Member
Subj:Vaccination Mandate and our team and family
As most of you may feel, I too feel frustrated with current nature and position of our regulatory and governmental
leadership in regards to the myopic finality of the current vaccine mandate. I am frustrated in the execution of this
mandate as many people are.
My job, however, as is all of ours, is to provide time and efforts in providing care and service to other people. As I’ve
stated many times over the years, we healthcare workers are not working in this profession on accident. We are
responding to an instrisic calling to serve those people who need us.
We have been challenged greatly in the last 18-24 months. Our challenges began with COVID. We rose to this challenge
and continue working diligently with success to keep our residents safe.
In this last several months our challenges have come from other places as well. It’s safe to say that many people feel
hesitant when it comes to their views on governmental and regulatory leadership. It is not my purpose to provide any
excuses in this area. I do believe there are great efforts being made with the intention of public well being and safety.
At the same time, I also believe that the source of this current vaccine mandate is the same source that has created
hesitation and suspicion. I also believe the execution of this mandate is highly political at this point. Conflict has
resulted and we as healthcare providers seem to be caught in the middle. We must persevere. Our work is too
important.
Despite the political realities at hand, I do believe in this vaccine and its effectiveness in improving population health. IN
addition to individual decisions we must all make, there is a bigger picture at hand.
As a healthcare worker and a valued member of this organization, your time and service to our residents, their families
and your team is absolutely necessary. Every single person who works within this organization at each individual site is
essential and necessary to assure the well-being of others. We need you. For those of you who’ve received the vaccine I
thank you. For those of you who’ve not yet decided to receive the vaccine, I am asking you to think hard and reconsider
your position. Please reach out to company leadership for more information. My cell is 845-750-4566.
At this time our organization will honor both religious and medical exemptions as formally requested and
provided. Please be sure to get this information to your supervisor or Administrator as quickly as possible this
week. Please note, however, that the law regarding religious exemptions remains uncertain as the issue is the subject of
pending litigation. We will provide you with any updated information when it is available to us.
Let’s pull together here again. Let’s stay together and continue our great effort to assure our residents have the care
and services they need.
My most sincere thanks to you all for your work over the last year as we’ve struggled and succeeded with COVID. I am
optimistic we are approaching a much better place. Thank you for your consideration of my message and for your
continued service to our residents.
A Letter from our President:
April 14, 2020
To: residents, families, visitors and local community
SUBJ: PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
One month ago our facilities implemented significant restrictions and direction to all who come in contact with our residents for the purpose of doing everything in our power to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 to our most vulnerable population. Due to everyone’s cooperation and diligence we have not experienced cases of this condition among our staff or residents. We are thankful and committed to ongoing success here.
We want to publically thank all of our leadership and staff for their focus and efforts so far. They have been great. We know that we must remain diligent in our efforts for the next 2-4 weeks. As the world determines how it must begin to start our economic and social engines again I must stress that our operations will conduct themselves in a most conservative way. We were among the first organizations to implement restrictions. We will be the last organizations to lift restrictions. There is no better option. If we can prevent transmission and subsequent suffering related to this condition then we will do so.
THROUGH THE END OF APRIL our organization (all four locations), in an effort to be as conservative and proactive as possible will continue restricting ALL visitations to our facilities. We continue cancelling all non-critical medical appointments. We continue cancelling traveling entertainment. We don’t like it either but as society begins to loosen its restrictions we need to refocus our efforts and watch things closely for the rest of the month and possibly into early May. Despite our optimism we know we are not out of the woods yet. We thank our residents, staff, and our community for the creativity and openness to finding new and innovative ways to stay connected. We personally thank everyone for the cards, the notes, the social media updates and the praise to our essential front line employees in all departments. Keep them coming – they are appreciated!!
We have not experienced influenza or COVID-19 outbreaks or cases so far. We want to keep it that way and protect our residents as best as we can. While it is impossible to guarantee that COVID-19 will not present itself within our facilities, we work diligently and are committed to protecting people.
Your continued support with our decisions is important and very much appreciated. Please continue with your own efforts to minimize and hopefully eliminate transmission by following all the governmental guidelines and directives.... it is worth the effort to protect our most vulnerable.
THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORT. WE WILL RE-EVALUATE THIS DECISION at the end of APRIL AS THINGS UNFOLD. ON BEHALF OF OWNERS AND LEADERSHIP – RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED
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