Skilled nursing providers with large shares of their workforce still unvaccinated nearly a year after COVID-19 vaccines first became available are breathing sighs of relief across the country this week.
That’s thanks to a court injunction that has paused a federal vaccine mandate for healthcare workers that was originally scheduled to have kicked in — and trigger expected terminations — by Monday of this week.
“Let’s just say that had it gone into effect this week, I’d be down 20% of my staff,” Robert Payne, CEO of Southwest LTC Management Services told the Texas Tribune. He had expected to impose more than 100 furloughs this week at the nursing home chain’s 17 Texas facilities.
A Nov. 30 ruling by a federal judge in Louisiana granted a nationwide temporary injunction against the vaccination rule issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Nov. 4. For weeks, providers, especially those in states with low overall vaccination rates, had been pursuing renewed efforts to educate and entice workers into accepting their first shots by Sunday.
While it’s unclear when a court could rule on the merits of this case or several others like it — or possibly lift the national injunction — many providers are seizing on the extra time to continue voluntary vaccinations.
In Wisconsin, about 71.4% of nursing homes workers have been vaccinated, according to data submitted to CMS for the week ending Nov. 21.
“That’s a long way to go,” LeadingAge Wisconsin CEO and President John Sauer told Wisconsin Public Radio.
In Ohio, the story is worse: Just under 61% of staff were vaccinated through the week of Nov. 21. That’s far below the national rate of 75.1%. And in some individual communities, the challenge is even more dire: The Ohio Capital Journal reported that the one-star rated, 78-bed Auglaize Acres has vaccinated less than 30% of its staff.
Administrator Rick Hartline told the newspaper his staff were avoiding shots out of a fear of the unknown — despite the fact that about 81% of residents are vaccinated. Hartline said he is ambivalent about mandates, but he and others fear their impact on already historically low staffing levels.
“Particularly in rural and underserved areas, the vaccine mandate carries the potential to severely limit services to older adults relying on long-term care,” said Peter Schwartz, a spokesman for LeadingAge Ohio. “Adding a vaccine mandate to this challenging environment — before addressing the workforce crisis — puts additional pressure on an already stressed system of long-term services and supports.”
Still, Peter Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association is advising members to continue their vaccination efforts, “both because it is the right thing to do and because the rule could come back in the future.”
