The faith-based, nonprofit Texas Health Resources system announced Friday that its 23,000 employees must be fully vaccinated by Sept. 10 — making it the third major North Texas employer to enforce a mandatory requirement.
Meanwhile, the region’s largest public hospital, Parkland Health & Hospital System, said it agrees with the decisions made by the other hospital systems but is restricted by Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order.
“The governor issued an executive order that prohibits public entities from mandating a COVID vaccine while it is approved under an emergency use authorization. There are no exceptions for public hospitals like Parkland,” said Mike Malaise, Parkland’s senior vice president of communications and external relations. “Parkland will continue to work to grasp the full implications of the governor’s executive order regarding vaccine mandates for public entities in Texas and use whatever methods available to us to achieve universal vaccinations among our staff as soon as possible.”
In the midst of surging delta COVID-19 cases in Texas, Abbott on Thursday issued a wide-ranging executive order that doubles down on his personal responsibility mantra. The order essentially bans any future mask mandates by governments or public school systems, and outlaws vaccine requirements by governments or entities receiving public funds.
Vaccine mandates implemented by Texas Health, Baylor Scott & White Health and Methodist Health System illuminate the divide between health care providers and some political leaders over the COVID-19 threat.
“As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout our communities, requiring vaccinations is the responsible step forward,” Texas Health CEO Barclay Berdan said. “We are taking this proactive step as our community faces increasing cases due in large part to low vaccination rates and the surging delta variant.”
The new variant is 50% more transmissible than the original COVID-19 virus and accounts for over 80% of current U.S. COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Texas, the variant accounts for almost 46% of cases.
“This is no different than the mandate we have for the seasonal flu vaccine,” Berdan said in a video message.
Parkland also compared the COVID-19 vaccine mandate to requiring flu shots.
“We agree with the decision of the other major hospitals in Dallas to mandate the vaccine for their employees just as we all do for flu each year,” Malaise said. “Mandating the vaccine is intended to both protect the employee and, importantly and often overlooked, to protect our patients by limiting the potential for disease spread on the campus. ... The vaccine is a tool that we now have that can reduce risk for our patients and we believe every health care worker should be required to take it for the protection of patients.”
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, another major Dallas health care provider, has not responded this week to multiple requests for comment on its vaccine policy.
Over 70% of Texas Health’s employees are currently vaccinated, Berdan said. Arlington-based Texas Health has over 27 hospitals and more than 350 facilities in North Texas.
Texas Health’s new policy differs from other local health care providers by giving workers a Sept. 10 deadline, three weeks ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline set by Baylor Scott & White and Methodist. All three hospital systems say they will allow exemptions for medical and religious reasons after internal review.
Earlier this week, some 60 medical groups called on health systems to make the shots a requirement. More than 70 hospital systems nationwide have implemented vaccine mandates, according to an updated list maintained by Becker’s Hospital Review.
