The two major children’s hospital systems in Dallas-Fort Worth are joining a growing list of health care providers requiring workers to get COVID-19 vaccines.
Children’s Health in Dallas and Cook Children’s in Fort Worth both announced employee mandates on Wednesday. Children’s Health’s 7,500 workers will have until Oct. 1 to get shots. Cook Children’s 8,000 employees have until noon on Sept. 27.
The children’s hospitals became the fourth and fifth major health care systems in North Texas to turn to mandatory shots as a way to raise vaccination rates among health care workers. Baylor Scott & White, Methodist Health System and Texas Health Resources all announced mandates last week.
Children’s decision comes a day after Dallas County raised its COVID-19 threat level to red because of what one county official described as a “frightening trajectory” of new coronavirus cases.
“As COVID-19 cases rapidly increase in the community, we believe now is the right time to take the next step in ensuring our patients and team members have the greatest protection against COVID-19,” Children’s Health said in a statement.
Parkland Health & Hospital System, the region’s largest public hospital, said last week that it agrees with decisions made by the other hospital systems but is restricted by Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive orders on masks and vaccines — two of the main mitigation measures used to slow the virus spread.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, which receives considerable state funding, said Wednesday that it also must abide by Abbott’s most recent sweeping order.
“UT Southwestern follows state guidance and the executive order of the governor, which at this time focuses on encouraging vaccination and personal choice,” a spokesperson said. “In line with the most recent guidance, we continue to require masking in our clinical facilities.”
Abbott, speaking Wednesday to a hotel owners convention in Dallas, reiterated his belief that personal responsibility is the best way to curb the virus, not government intervention.
“Everyone already knows what to do,” he said. “Everyone can voluntarily implement the mandates that are safest for them, for their families and for their businesses.”
In the last month, Children’s Health said it has seen an uptick in the number of patients testing positive for COVID-19. Ninety-three patients tested positive last week, compared to only 10 during the week of June 27.
Cook Children’s said its COVID-19 cases among patients also have “increased dramatically over the past few weeks.” It is currently treating 24 children for the virus, as positive cases rose above 11% in the past week versus only 1% on June 2.
“Just as things began to get better, they have quickly gotten worse with the recent surge in COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant,” Cook Children’s CEO Rick Merrill said in a video statement.
Both systems cited the high percentage of young patients in their care who aren’t eligible for the shots as a driving force behind the mandate.
“We are privileged to care for some of the most medically complex children in the region, and we believe it is our ethical duty to protect them and the nearly 70% of our patients who are younger than 12 years old and ineligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” Children’s Health said.
Merrill echoed that sentiment.
“Given how close we are to critically ill children, we know this is the right decision for our system and ultimately our patients,” he said.
Children’s Health said 80% of its workers have already have been vaccinated. Its three main hospitals and 21 specialty centers cared for more than 227,000 patients last year.
Cook Children’s said more than 95% of its physicians and two-thirds of its employees have been vaccinated. It operates 60 primary, specialty and urgent care locations that handled more than 1 million patient visits in its most recent 12-month period.
The systems will allow employees to file for religious or medical exemptions to the vaccination mandate.
Staff Writer Dom DiFurio contributed to this story.
