In a story that could be replicated in many areas, The Morning Call‘s Tim Darragh writes that hopitals, both locally and nationally, are pushing hard for workers – both medical and otherwise – to get flu vaccines, as the Joint Commission moves toward stiffer requirements and CMS threatens to cut reimbursement rates for non-compliant hospitals.
Some of the Lehigh Valley region’s hospitals…. are mandating employees get flu vaccines if they have contact with patients — even if the employees don’t want the shots. If they don’t comply or get a valid exemption, they will be fired.
The list of staff affected by the policy is broad. It includes not only doctors and nurses and others directly involved in patient care but also housekeeping and maintenance workers.
Across the country, the stricter regulations seem to be making a difference, Darragh reports. A health system in Ohio has already issued termination notices to non-vaccinated workers, and even civil rights advocates known for taking the workers’ side admit that it is difficult to argue that hospital workers shouldn’t be vaccinated.
The ever popular (and quotable) Dr. Arthur Kaplan agrees.
Without greater compliance, the work environment won’t attain a level of immunity that will provide sufficient protection to the sick, said Dr. Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. “You don’t get the ‘herd immunity’ until you hit 90 percent,” said Caplan, a proponent of mandatory vaccinations.
