In the rural northeastern corner of Missouri, Scotland County Hospital has been so low on staff that it sometimes had to turn away patients amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. The national COVID-19 staffing crunch led to hospital CEO Dr. Randy Tobler hiring more travel nurses to fill the gaps. And the prices are steep—what he called “crazy,” with rates of $200 per hour or more, which Tobler said his small rural hospital can’t afford. A little more than 60 percent of his staff is fully vaccinated. But even as COVID-19 cases rise, a vaccine mandate is out of the question. “If that becomes our differential advantage, we probably won’t have one until we’re forced to have one,” Tobler said. “Maybe that’s the thing that will keep nurses here.” As of Sept. 2, about 39 percent of U.S. hospitals had announced vaccine mandates, said Colin Milligan, a spokesperson for the …