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File photo from EastIdahoNews.com
BOISE (AP) – Three of Idaho’s largest healthcare providers announced Thursday that they will need COVID-19 vaccines for eligible employees.
The mandates of the Primary Health Group, Saint Alphonsus Health System and St. Luke’s Health System are aimed at ensuring the safety of staff and patients ahead of the busy cold and flu season and as the coronavirus variants continue to spread in parts of the United States.
Primary Health Group CEO Dr David Peterman made the announcement to staff members at a company meeting. Primary Health has 21 family medicine and emergency care clinics in southwestern Idaho that receive approximately 500,000 patient visits per year. About 130 of its more than 600 employees have yet to be vaccinated, Peterman said.
“It’s the right thing that needs to be done today,” Peterman said. “If you think of it in terms of a billion doses of vaccine given around the world – and serious side effects are extremely rare – you begin to see that it is our obligation to make sure our clinics are safe. “
The company has required its employees to be immunized against other contagious diseases for a decade, including an annual flu shot, except for employees with medical or religious exemptions. Requiring a COVID-19 vaccine for workers is the next logical step in keeping clinics open and employees and patients safe, Peterman said.
Several hospital systems nationwide have mandated COVID-19 vaccines for workers, but Peterman said he believes Primary Health may be the first independent medical group to demand the vaccine.
Employees took the news well, with some asking questions about the medical exemption process, but none voicing opposition, Peterman said. Within hours of the announcement, however, rude calls and emails from people unrelated to the company – but still unhappy with the new policy – began to arrive. “just not good.”
“There has been a lot of positive feedback from ‘outsiders’ and our own employees,” said Peterman. “Unsurprisingly, we got some crazy phone calls trying to take care of our patients, you know, ridiculous stuff. “
Similar mandates elsewhere have been pushed back. More than 100 employees at a Houston hospital system have sued for demanding that staff be vaccinated after being suspended without pay for violating the rule. Last month, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against the Houston Methodist hospital system, telling employees they were free to seek employment elsewhere if they wanted to skip the vaccine, but that a fundamental part of any job is that employers can impose limits on worker behavior in exchange for a salary.
Peterman said he accepts that some of his own workers may find the requirement “unacceptable”. Staff with documented medical or religious exemptions will not be required to be vaccinated, but will need to wear face masks and goggles when in clinics, he said. .
“It has nothing to do with politics. This is not just any statement, ”he said. “Our intention is to prepare for what is to come in the fall.
Schools in the region open in mid-August. Each year, the clinic sees an increase in viral illness about a month after schools open, Peterman said. With children under 12 still unable to receive the vaccine and low vaccination rates among older children in Idaho, unvaccinated staff members should self-quarantine with coronavirus exposures or symptoms – that can mimic other viral diseases.
Peterman said he feared a repeat of last year: At one point, 30% of his employees were absent due to a positive coronavirus test or exposure, forcing seven clinics to temporarily close. For more than two months, National Guard workers mobilized on the orders of Idaho Gov. Brad Little helped staff at primary health care facilities, sorting patients and directing them to the right place.
“The key to prevention, the key to treatment, the key to immunization is primary care clinics,” said Peterman. “It is therefore absolutely imperative that our clinics are safe and have employees there who can meet their needs. We don’t know what’s coming this fall or winter.
The new, faster-spreading delta variant, first detected in India, of COVID-19 has moved to some areas, including the neighboring state of Utah. Health officials said on Wednesday that the delta variant now accounts for about 80% of cases in the state.
Idaho lags far behind some other states in testing for coronavirus variants, with limited capacity to perform genetic sequencing tests that can identify mutations of concern like the delta variant. State public health officials, however, announced last month that they were working to increase variant testing.
More than 195,000 cases of coronavirus have been detected in Idaho since the start of the pandemic, and more than 2,000 people have died from COVID-19.
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