Health care officials are scrambling today to do final counts of unvaccinated employees to comply with a federal mandate.
In Johnson County, most health care workers chose to get vaccinated, but others felt so strongly against taking the COVID-19 vaccine they lost their jobs.
All health care employees had to be vaccinated with at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by the start of their shift today, to comply with the mandate from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS).
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in January to let the CMS mandate stand, health care facilities across the country have been scrambling to count the unvaccinated and spread the word about the mandate.
Most local health care facilities were avoiding mandating the vaccine until the federal government stepped in. However, they encouraged employees to be vaccinated and warned that a mandate was likely, local health care leaders said.
As of Friday, about 90% of Johnson Memorial Health employees were either vaccinated or had provided a medical or religious exemption, said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO. He was optimistic more people would get vaccinated over the weekend, but couldn’t be sure how many did until the final count today.
“I don’t take it lightly when I talk about the JMH family. I really don’t want to lose any employee,” Dunkle said.
As of Tuesday, Compass Park was about 96% compliant with the mandate, with 92% of employees vaccinated and 4% exempted for health or religious reasons, said Mike Spencer, executive director.
“I think we are going to be really close. We have a few employees who are on the fence,” Spencer said. “I’m hoping we don’t lose any staff, but if we do, I don’t think it will be more than one or two people.”
Homeview Health staff was fully in compliance, with more than 71% of employees vaccinated and all remaining employees covered by an exemption, said Mark Gavorski, administrator.
The Indiana Department of Health reports long-term care facility staff vaccinations on its vaccination dashboard, but the numbers were last updated Jan. 23. Several local long-term care facilities did not respond to requests for comment and up-to-date data.
Some health care companies got creative to tackle the vaccination gap.
Compass Park, for example, rewarded employees with a $50 bonus per vaccination, and used the employee newsletter to share studies on vaccine effectiveness and squash misinformation, Spencer said. Compass Park also started preparing early for the mandate, requiring new employees hired after Aug. 1 to be vaccinated, he said.
Homeview leaders tried to depoliticize vaccinations and emphasize that employees should ask their doctors about the vaccine, Gavorski said.
“It is all about the presentation,” he said. “We presented it as people still having a choice. We’ve been positive in our presentation of the vaccine.”
Many Homeview employees who were on the fence were also swayed by watching loved ones or patients become ill after a COVID-19 infection, he said.
Facilities including Johnson Memorial hosted vaccine clinics for employees, or, in Compass Park’s case, provided access to employees through their partnership with the Johnson County Health Department. For nearly a year, the facility has hosted the health department’s vaccine clinic.
Today, facilities are doing final counts and preparing to replace employees who were suspended due to the mandate. Most of the employees who could be suspended are likely to be individuals who are not involved with patient care, Dunkle said.
For the next month, health care leaders will continue to monitor newly vaccinated employees to ensure they receive their second doses by March 15 to meet the CMS deadline.
“We asking employees if they’re sure they’re not going to comply to please let us know,” Dunkle said. “There’s no animosity. (I hope) people understand this is not being mandated by Johnson Memorial Health. It is a federal mandate.”
How the mandate will impact future health care recruiting, particularly positions that have equivalent roles outside health care, remains to be seen. At Compass Park, having the mandate for the past six months has weeded out some candidates, but plenty are still applying, Spencer said.
