Houston Methodist Hospital Makes COVID-19 Vaccines Mandatory for All Employees

HOUSTON – Houston Methodist Hospital becomes one of the first major hospitals to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for everyone who works there.

President and CEO Dr. Marc Boom made the announcement in a letter: “Since the onset of the pandemic, we have shown leadership to our city, the rest of the country and the world in our health care. patients with COVID-19, our practical infection control and our research into promising new treatments. We have also led the way in immunization, administering more than 470,000 to date. And now is our opportunity to continue leading medicine.

As part of the Methodist management of Houston, we need to lead by example and get ourselves vaccinated. Indeed, 95% of our management and 100% of our executives have already been vaccinated. At Houston Methodist, we are committed to providing our patients with unmatched safety, quality, service and innovation. When we choose to be vaccinated against COVID-19, we prioritize safety by helping to stop the spread of this deadly virus and ensuring the safety of our patients, visitors and colleagues. As we move closer to announcing mandatory vaccinations for all employees, we need you to get started – to lead by example and show our employees how important it is to get vaccinated. We are already demanding that all new hires be vaccinated as a condition for them to join the Houston Methodist.

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I am grateful to the vast majority of you who are already vaccinated, but we must aim for 100% of our management to be vaccinated. You now have until April 15 to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or get an approved exemption. Otherwise, we will follow the HR policy on non-compliance.

We can make a powerful statement to our employees if we need to get vaccinated first. Thank you for continuing your unparalleled leadership, which has made a big difference in our fight against COVID-19.

About 83% of our employees have been vaccinated. Soon you will receive a list of your employees who have not received at least one vaccine. Since all employees will need to be vaccinated soon, we ask that you start talking to your staff about the importance of the vaccine. I’ve included an FAQ that might help you in these conversations, and we’ll keep it updated. As we have been saying for months, it will soon be compulsory for all employees. Thank you for getting the vaccine and thank you for leading your staff to make the right decision to help protect our patients. “

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Carole Hackett, senior vice president of human resources at Houston Methodist, said employees would be briefed on the facts about the vaccine.

“Sure, we allow exemptions for medical or religious exemptions, but if they don’t have exemptions, they can be terminated for not having received the vaccine,” Hackett said.

KPRC 2 Investigates sent a survey to local hospitals asking for vaccination rates. All of the hospitals that responded offered them to 100% of their health workers.

Houston Methodists had the highest vaccination rate last week.

“The number of our employees sick with COVID has dropped dramatically as the number of vaccines has increased,” Hackett said. “So we know it works, we know it works.”