Mandatory Hurricane Evacuation - Can I be Forced to Work?

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At-will employment. Your job can get rid of you because of your natural eye color if they want to, and that's 100% legal. That's why most health care facilities work very hard to resist their workers being able to unionize, to the point of threatening termination for any signs of joining a union.

I understand at-will employment.

I still don't understand how a policy manual can override a mandatory evac order from the Governor.

And how is it that some medical facilities are allowed to stay open during an MEO?

Lorie Attorney, can you weigh back in? Thanks.

Because the governor issued exceptions for medical facilities that needed to remain open. Which most people seem to be ignoring.

Why did they NEED to remain open?

Uhm no. Despite what the OP stated, I actually read the governor's executive order outlining the evacuation order and all exceptions made there to.

The governor didn't specifically order any hospitals to close. He ordered evacuation of specific geogrpahic areas but allowed a broad exception to healthcare facilities that needed to remain open. The decision to remain open was left up to the facility's medical director.

I wonder if each medical director was on site or had he/she evacuated?

Can you post the MEO?

It's a catch 22. I live in FL which is hurricane central and during Irma (I still hadn't begun working at my hospital) my husband mentioned a coworker evacuated with his family and didn't show up (team A or "during"). He was fired. If we don't show up then who will? When hurricanes arrive the barometer pressure drops which ALSO means LABORING MOMS!! Yay!! (Sarcasm) so we have a huge influx of pregnant women AND their families on top of employees with THEIR families. If nurses/docs leave then what happens to the rest? In regards to the Governor I'm not entirely sure how your employer would still pay no regards to that warning.

How come those pregnant women didn't evacuate?

Specializes in Telemetry, IMCU.
How come those pregnant women didn't evacuate?

Evacuate where?? We don't get orders to evacuate. The Keys did, but evacuation had risks. A lot of these women are HIGH RISK. Finding a high risk OB on short notice AND in an area you evacuated to is next to impossible. Our facility also withstood Andrew which was our biggest. I was 2 at the time and has withstood many more hurricanes. We're the safest building and if mom goes into labor what better place than at the hospital? Although last hurricane there were fights amongst men and women who thought the cafeteria crew had a DUTY to provide food for them which they don't. So sometimes it's a good AND bad thing to have an over abundance of people.

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