Many local health workers aren’t required to get the COVID vaccine. Should they be?
Story has been updated.
Hospitals and medical clinics in the Pierce County area have not mandated vaccines among their workers even as concerns grow over the rise of COVID-19 variants and participation in vaccine drives has waned.
Local health systems, including MultiCare and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, are leaving it up to workers to become vaccinated, while Kaiser Permanente has turned to prizes to encourage vaccinations among staff and patients.
Some people wonder if current measures and policies make sense as concerns grow over COVID variants.
The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and other medical groups on Tuesday issued a statement calling for a national mandate for U.S. health care workers.
“The COVID-19 vaccines in use in the United States have been shown to be safe and effective,” said David J. Weber, a member of the SHEA Board of Trustees and lead author of the statement. “By requiring vaccination as a condition of employment, we raise levels of vaccination for healthcare personnel, improve protection of our patients, and aid in reaching community protection. As healthcare personnel, we’re committed to these goals.”
Worries of contracting COVID-19 from medical workers led one local patient to reach out to The News Tribune. The man said some of the workers he interacted with during a recent visit to St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor told him they weren’t vaccinated. He told The News Tribune he wished Virginia Mason Franciscan Health officials had been more clear about the fact some staff there had not received vaccines against COVID.
“I can’t be in that situation and bring anything home,” he said. “There is such a large percentage of unvaccinated employees there.”
The patient did not want his name used for fear of retribution via ongoing medical appointments but said he had been vaccinated as it was “the right thing to do.”
In response, Cary Evans, vice president for Communications and Government Affairs, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, told The News Tribune in an emailed statement that the health system “actively and strongly encourages team members, patients, and individuals in the community to get vaccinated, and has done so since the vaccine was first made available.”
Employees aren’t required to disclose their vaccination status.
“Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is not a condition of employment,” Evans noted. “We continue to implement rigorous safety standards at all of our health care facilities in accordance with CDC and public health guidelines to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including universal masking and eye protection for all patient interactions, among many others.”
The patient told The News Tribune he “would have never entered” and gone elsewhere had he known about the lack of requirement for hospital staff. The concerns came from fears he could contract COVID “and spread it to a loved one who is not able to be vaccinated.”
MultiCare also does not require vaccinations of staff.
Holly Harvey, media representative for MultiCare, told The News Tribune in response to questions via email, “All MultiCare employees have been offered the COVID-19 vaccine, and it is not currently a requirement to be employed at MultiCare.”
“We’re continuing to follow the CDC and other guidance related to the vaccine as we make any further decisions about vaccinations among our staff, patients and communities,” she added.
Harvey said the health care system has offered “vaccine education to our employees through many channels, including virtual town halls, fact sheets, educational videos, and team-by-team conversations. We share updated information both internally and through our social media channels, blogs and community partners as we know many of our community members also have questions.”
Linnae Riesen, media representative for Kaiser Permanente, told The News Tribune via email that “the majority of our frontline health care workers offered the vaccine have been vaccinated.”
Riesen wrote that the health system has taken to a sweepstakes to grow its numbers of vaccinated staff, with prizes that included a family trip to Disneyland, a National Park Annual Pass and camping gear, and a 3-night wellness retreat in Arizona or California, including round trip airfare, spa treatments, and hotel accommodations, among other prizes.
“To encourage vaccination in our community, we are proud to offer the ImmUNITY Sweepstakes to anyone 12 or older vaccinated at Kaiser Permanente, including Kaiser Permanente staff, with winners announced in August,” Riesen wrote.
“Additionally, we have worked hard to share the most up-to-date information while combating misinformation in our communities to keep patients as well as staff accurately informed.”
After the first vaccines were made available to front-line health workers, representatives for the two health systems in separate interviews cited just over 50 percent vaccination rate for MultiCare and 70-75 percent vaccination rates for CHI Franciscan (part of VMFH) as of mid-January after starting in mid-December.
At the time, both representatives said that employees not yet vaccinated were taking a “wait and see” approach.
“Because the vaccine is under an emergency use authorization, it’s important that people have an option to receive the vaccine, or not,” Eric Wymore, vice president of Pharmacy Services for CHI Franciscan, told The News Tribune in January.
Wymore added: “I would say we obviously encourage our staff to receive it, especially those that are highest risk interacting with COVID patients or, or potentially asymptomatic COVID patients in our healthcare settings, as well as all of our staff right that may be handling specimens from lab or environmental service to staff.”
The current vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, still await full approval from the FDA.
Some of the skittishness around issuing mandates might have to do with labor unions endorsing voluntary compliance over mandates.
The Washington State Nurses Association, in a statement in June, said: “WSNA supports and urges voluntary efforts that aim for 100% vaccination rates, including education and implementation of comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination programs for all health care workers.”
SEIU 1199NW, in a published document about its policies on the vaccine, said: “Coronavirus vaccination must not be made mandatory. Our experience with flu vaccination shows that with enough education, the vast majority of healthcare workers take the flu vaccine. Making it mandatory for employees to take a vaccine that is under emergency use authorization only could backfire by decreasing trust in the employer and the new vaccine.”
It also noted: “Employers should not use vaccines as a substitute for worker safety and infection control protocols or for ensuring access to personal protective equipment.”
As threats from the variants rise, testing the limits of the COVID vaccines, some health systems elsewhere in the United States and other countries are abandoning the opt-in approach.
Mercy Health System, with hospitals in current Delta variant hotspots in Missouri and Arkansas, on July 7 announced it would mandate all employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19 by Sept. 30.
On Monday, France and Greece announced new vaccine mandates for its health care workers. Italy mandated the shots in April.
But at least one health system in Washington state has moved toward a mandate, though exemptions are still possible.
On Wednesday (July 14), Susan Gregg, media representative for UW Medicine, told The News Tribune in an emailed statement: “UW Medicine is requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. This requirement aligns with the University of Washington’s broader campus policy for faculty, other academic personnel, staff, trainees and student employees. In alignment also with the University’s policy, employees may claim an exemption for medical or non-medical (such as religious or philosophical) reasons.”
While not sharing the current percentage of MultiCare staff vaccinated, Harvey wrote: “Our staff represent our communities and there are some who have chosen not to get the vaccine at this point. We are actively working to understand and address reasons for any vaccine hesitancy for our staff and our communities.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 2:06 PM.
