The COVID-19 vaccination policies and deadlines implemented by several of the country’s largest post-acute care operators will remain intact after President Joe Biden announced a vaccination requirement for nursing home employees earlier this week.
Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, the largest nonprofit multi-site senior care organization in the 2020 LZ200 listings, was one of skilled nursing’s first large vaccine mandators.
Good Sam announced its requirement for all staff to begin vaccinations by Nov. 1 in late July. At the time, President and CEO Randy Bury told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News that adding the workplace safety measure might help with recruitment. He believes requiring vaccines can attract already-vaccinated job candidates and help retain staff who worry about developing breakthrough cases or carrying the virus home to their families.
But he said Thursday that the Biden administration’s policy undercuts that benefit, and he is concerned some workers may migrate to other sectors without an expansion of the federal mandate.
“This clearly keeps one arm behind our back relative to competing hospitals or other settings,” Bury said, adding he was disappointed the announcement didn’t go further. “I applaud the long-term care move, but if you’re really out to impact health and safety, you need a broader strategy.”
For now, the organization’s Nov. 1 deadline remains in place, as do requirements for two doses if staff choose the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. This week’s news on needed booster shots, though, could also lead Good Sam to reevaluate that part of its COVID-19 vaccine employment conditions.
For now, Bury said he is in “wait and see” mode, with few employees having resigned and few filing applications since Good Sam made its condition of employment announcement.
Vaccination deadlines will also remain in place for Genesis HealthCare, the nation’s largest nursing home chain, and PruittHealth, the 11th largest, after both announced mandates for employees earlier this month.
A Genesis spokeswoman told McKnight’s Thursday that “there are no changes” to its universal vaccination policy that requires current staff, visiting providers, care partners and onsite vendors to complete their first or single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by next Monday. The company added that employees must still have their second dose by Sept. 22.
A PruittHealth spokeswoman on Thursday also confirmed that its timeline for its recently announced mandate has not changed, and the deadline for all employees to have received at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine remains October 1.
It was not immediately clear on Wednesday how regulators expect to audit or enforce the newly announced vaccine mandate. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a statement that guidance would be coming in September, when new rules are expected to go into full effect.
Ohio-based operator Continuing Healthcare Solutions, which announced its initial vaccine mandate in late March, adjusted those plans in June and decided to wait until the COVID-19 vaccines received full federal approval before enforcing its inoculation policy for employees. The company has since seen 70% uptake among its employees.
The company on Thursday said it joins the president in continuing to urge everyone to receive the vaccine and is awaiting more details regarding the federal mandate. It added, however, that it shares “our industry’s concerns with focusing a mandate on nursing home employees rather than the entire healthcare universe.”
“We also are hopeful that the FDA will soon fully approve the vaccines, removing the emergency use authorization designation and, we believe, encouraging more people who are vaccine hesitant to get the shot,” Mark Morely, vice president of operations at Continuing Healthcare Solutions, told McKnight’s.
“Our goal all along has been to do everything we can to assure the safety of the people we work with and the people we care for,” he added. “That goal will not change.”
