Columbus Regional Health does not currently plan to shift gears and require employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after a who’s-who of medical groups this week called for health care employers to mandate vaccinations among staff.
On Monday, more than 50 medical groups — including the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Public Health Association — urged health care employers to require all staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19, citing the spread highly contagious variants and “significant numbers of unvaccinated people,” including health care workers.
In the statement, the group says requiring COVID-19 vaccines among staff will protect their colleagues, families, long-term care residents and patients, characterizing such mandates as “the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment of all health care workers.”
“We call for all health care and long-term care employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” the joint statement says. “We stand with the growing number of experts and institutions that support the requirement for universal vaccination of healthcare workers.”
However, the joint statement also advises health care employers to “consider any applicable state laws.”
In April, Indiana passed legislation that prohibits state or local governments from issuing or requiring COVID-19 vaccine passports, which generally are documents that show people were vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus, The Associated Press reported.
CRH, which is a county-owned hospital, said it “highly supports” efforts to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations, but also considers other things when deciding whether to mandate vaccinations, including the hospital system’s current understanding of the state’s vaccine passport legislation and the progress that the vaccines make toward full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said CRH hospital spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue.
CRH, however, does require all staff to get immunized against certain illnesses — including influenza, tuberculosis and hepatitis — but allows for certain exceptions due to medical or religious reasons.
“CRH highly supports efforts to promote the vaccine and ensure its widespread adoption,” DeClue said. “Specifically, in health care, we believe staff being immunized can help protect patients. We strongly encourage the vaccine among all our workforce; however, we currently do not require the vaccine as a condition of employment. Of course, this is a very fluid initiative and priority for our health system as information and guidance continues to evolve.”
The joint statement from dozens of medical groups came as COVID-19 cases start to skyrocket again across the country after months of declines, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings, according to the AP.
The country is averaging more than 57,000 cases a day and 24,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to wire reports. Indiana reported 1,089 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.
