More than 50 prominent medical organizations Monday called for all health-care employers and long-term care facilities to require COVID-19 vaccinations for their entire staffs.
In response to inquiries from The Dallas Morning News, the region’s largest public hospital system — Parkland — said it is having internal discussions about a mandate, with a decision expected soon. Parkland doesn’t currently require employees to be vaccinated.
“Parkland leadership believes a vaccine mandate for employees would be beneficial in terms of keeping our staff and patients protected from COVID infection,” said Mike Malaise, Parkland’s senior vice president of communications and external relations.
Baylor Scott & White, the state’s largest nonprofit health system, said changes may be necessary to its policy as a result of the delta variant, but it doesn’t presently mandate vaccination.
“The delta variant is leading to exponentially increasing rates of severe illness and hospitalization, and like many other organizations, we are evaluating the circumstances, prioritizing patient and employee safety and adjusting our policies as needed,” said spokeswoman Julie Smith.
Three other locally-based health care companies contacted by The News indicated they strongly encourage employees to get the shots. Texas Health Resources, Children’s Health and Capital Senior Living Corp. did not respond
The medical groups’ call for action comes as the delta variant fuels a nationwide surge of COVID deaths and infections among unvaccinated Americans. Last week, the American Hospital Association and America’s Essential Hospitals also called for mandatory COVID vaccinations for all health-care workers.
The 53 organizations that issued Monday’s joint statement include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, and the American Nursing Association.
“Vaccination is the primary way to put the pandemic behind us and avoid the return of stringent public health measures,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, many health care and long-term care personnel remain unvaccinated. As we move towards full FDA approval of the currently available vaccines, all health care workers should get vaccinated for their own health, and to protect their colleagues, families, residents of long-term care facilities and patients.”
On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs became the first major federal agency to require health care workers to get COVID-19 vaccines. No federal law stands in the way of employers requiring vaccinations, but like mask mandates, the issue has been politicized in a society that’s divided on matters of public health.
Texas had earlier been a battleground for vaccine mandates when more than 150 employees at a Houston hospital system who refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine were fired or resigned after a judge dismissed an employee lawsuit over the vaccine requirement.
Dallas-based Methodist Health System doesn’t require vaccination for employees, but stresses the effectiveness of the shots.
“Methodist Health System strongly encourages everyone who is eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine to do so, and that includes our employees,” said spokesman Ryan Owens. “We believe these vaccines are safe and effective, and the best path to end this pandemic.”
Dallas-based Steward Health Care, which runs 34 hospitals in nine states, five in Malta and Colombia, and a large network of doctors’ offices, said its “clear goal and expectation” is vaccination adherence, though it doesn’t require it.
“Steward is working proactively to meet this objective as soon as possible,” said Jeremy Tunis, interim vice president of communications. “Our approach aligns to the varying clinical, operational, public health and regulatory factors across the numerous jurisdictions where we treat patients.”
Tunis said a majority of Steward employees have been vaccinated.
Farmers Branch-based Tenet Healthcare, which also doesn’t require vaccination, touted its low staff infection rates as evidence of the success of its COVID-19 protocols.
“Consistent with the FDA’s guidance on emergency use authorization, we continue to advocate for and communicate the significant benefits of COVID vaccinations to everyone in our communities and especially to our own staff,” said Tenet spokeswoman Lesley Bogdanow.
The medical groups’ statement appears to have divided the two main organizations that represent the nursing home industry. The American Health Care Association did not sign on to the statement, even though more than 180,000 nursing home and long-term care residents have died from COVID. A spokesperson for the AHCA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LeadingAge, which represents more than 5,000 nonprofit aging services providers, including nursing homes, is backing the call for mandatory staff vaccinations.
The AHCA had spearheaded a volunteer effort that sought—but failed—to get 75% of nursing home staff vaccinated by the end of June. Nursing home staff vaccination rates vary widely in the U.S., with a national rate of just over 61%, according to a statement issued by LeadingAge.
“Care providers have been working around the clock to steadily increase the number of residents and staff who are vaccinated, and COVID deaths have plummeted, but it’s time to do more,” Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, said in a statement. “As COVID-19 variants emerge and proliferate, we can start saving more lives today by ensuring staff are fully vaccinated.”
Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have been the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, accounting for nearly 184,000 deaths and more than 1.4 million infections as of July 2, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Infected staffers are believed to be the cause of much of the carnage.
In March, an unvaccinated employee in a Kentucky nursing home is believed to have spurred an outbreak involving a variant that killed three residents and infected 26 others along with 20 facility staff. Only four of the infected staffers were fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Susan R. Bailey, immediate past president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement that it’s “critical that all people in the health care workforce get vaccinated against COVID-19 for the safety of our patients and our colleagues.”
“With more than 300 million doses administered in the United States and nearly 4 billion doses administered worldwide we know the vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing severe illness and death from COVID-19,” Bailey said.
