By the end of June, more than 3-in-4 state health care workers had already been vaccinated. In all 14 state-operated health care facilities, nearly all of the 10,000 workers have been vaccinated, the state Department of Health and Human Services announced last week. In that context, the 175 people who were fired for refusing the vaccine is a comparatively small number. David Priest, Novant’s senior vice president and chief safety, quality and epidemiology officer, during a recent media briefing.īefore vaccines were available, workers who contracted COVID had to isolate at home for up to a couple of weeks, Priest said. “Vaccination also prevents our team members from getting COVID,” said Dr. Workforce protection is also on the minds of executives as the pandemic enters its 19th month and nearly 730,000 people in the United States have died from the disease. Several mentioned patient safety and the bedrock principle of doctors to “do no harm.” Hospitals are requiring vaccinations for a number of reasons. The system did not answer how many people received an exemption. Workers with an approved medical or religious exemption “are required to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, wear N95 respirators masks or other appropriate PPE, and eyewear protection while working on Novant Health premises,” Rivers said in response to CPP’s survey. Ultimately, Novant fired 175 people for refusing to get a valid exemption or get vaccinated. Of those, 200 got vaccinated within the next five days, said Novant spokeswoman Megan Rivers, on Twitter. Novant Health announced a vaccine mandate in July, along with many other hospitals in the state, and asked its 35,000 workers to get the jab by the middle of September.Īnd while the vast majority of workers have complied with that mandate, around 375 workers were suspended until they got vaccinated. Workers who lose their jobs because they refuse to comply with a vaccination mandate are entering a favorable job market or may be able to claim unemployment benefits. More than 2,500 hospitals nationwide have made vaccination a requirement of continued employment, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. While initially this related to long-term care facilities, the mandate is expanding to hospitals, surgical settings and dialysis centers. Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently entered the rule-making stage of developing a nationwide COVID vaccination mandate for all health care employees who work in Medicare- or Medicaid-funded facilities. More recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the evidence shows pregnant women are at increased risk for COVID-19, and vaccines are safe for women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to conceive. Others have received a religious exemption.Įarlier in the pandemic, pregnant women also eschewed vaccination. Some people can’t get the shot due to their allergies. Two additional hospital systems did not respond to Carolina Public Press’ survey, and two more responded without revealing how many workers are utilizing exemptions to the vaccination mandate. Many hospital employees were vaccinated before their hospitals required shots as a condition of employment.Īccording to two of the state’s largest hospital organizations that responded to queries from Carolina Public Press, they have also granted some workers an exemption from the vaccine mandate as long as they are frequently tested for the coronavirus and wear appropriate personal protective equipment such as N95 masks or face shields. Starting in July, several hospital systems announced a COVID-19 vaccine requirement. To date, more than 5.7 million state residents have gotten two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer jabs or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians have volunteered to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In late summer, multiple hospital systems told their workers to vaxx up or pack up.
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