Federal regulators have done a lot of things that made providers’ eyebrows rise in the past. On Nov. 4, they added a new one by leap-frogging past every holiday right to Jan. 4 of next year.
As you surely have heard by now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has set Jan. 4 as the deadline for nursing home and other healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. While exacting a pound of flesh for non-compliance is not the goal, penalties for not having your staff 100% jabbed will be gradual but certain, CMS brass emphasized to McKnight’s.
Between mid-August and the first week of November, the rate of nursing home workers vaccinated rose 9 percentage points, to just more than 71%. The federal mandate for healthcare workers is aimed at goosing that by 15% or more — actually almost 29%, since 100% is the goal.
The train is about to leave the station, and we’ll soon find out how many are on it.
Either the healthcare workplace is for you or it isn’t. The parameters have been set, nearly two years into the most dangerous pandemic in American history. While vaccinated people can still contract the virus or pass it on, the overwhelming results thus far show that they are much healthier, and much less dangerous to those around them.
It might not be perfect, but as every coach I’ve ever had has said: You do the best you can with the tools you have at the time. Otherwise, you’re just that guy whose only words are a reflexive, “Yeah, but …”
If the feds have, in effect, created untenable circumstances where vaccination rates remain low, they’ll have to attempt to figure out further accommodations. That doesn’t mean, however, compromising on character or values built on the soundest current caregiving principles.
And if eldercare capacity temporarily dips because the greater community chooses not to play by the current rules needed to staff appropriately, then maybe their loved ones will have less than optimal care options. It could be as simple as that.
Regulators and operators have made their choices; It might be time for the people themselves to determine whether or not they want functioning care facilities, based on the best principles of the time.
It’s not too soon to ponder: What are the New Year’s resolutions going to be for you, your staff and your workplace?
From the December 2021 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
