Excela considers a covid vaccine mandate for hospital workers as the delta variant spreads; nearly 40% of workers are not vaccinated

Westmoreland County’s largest hospital and employer system is considering requiring healthcare workers to be vaccinated against covid-19 as concerns grow over the rapid spread of the delta variant among the unvaccinated.

Excela Health, which employs around 4,300 people in three hospitals and more than a dozen outpatient, testing and therapy providers, has no imminent plans to force the 38% of its workers who are not vaccinated to get vaccinated to keep their jobs – as dozens of hospital operators have started doing it elsewhere in Pennsylvania and across the country. But its top medical official said Exela was considering a mandate to vaccinate employees as a protective measure, following recommendations from a growing list of experts and industry leaders.

“Given the virulence of the delta variant and an expected increase in cases during the fall, this is definitely something we are exploring,” Excela Health chief medical officer Dr Carol Fox.

Exela’s three-hospital system – Frick Hospital at Mt. Pleasant, Latrobe Hospital in Latrobe and Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg – join a growing number of healthcare organizations grappling with whether to mandate vaccinations as the pandemic rages and participation in vaccination clinics declines even among those who work directly with vulnerable patients.

Pennsylvania’s largest non-government employer, UPMC, based in downtown Pittsburgh, is not currently planning to impose vaccination on its more than 90,000 employees – although its executives have not ruled out the possibility to do.

“We are not changing our current policy on this,” UPMC spokeswoman Taylor Andres said via email. “The UPMC encourages all staff to receive the covid-19 vaccine, and we offer many vaccination opportunities to facilitate the process.

“Vaccination is a layer of protection; at UPMC, our multiple infection prevention efforts – including mandatory masking of employees, patients and visitors – are very effective in preventing the transmission of covid-19 within our facilities, ”added Andres. “We will continue to collect data and assess the evidence for the effectiveness of covid-19 vaccines and may require our employees to receive them in the future.”

Such a mandate is not under discussion this week for Highmark Health’s Allegheny Health Network.

“We have no plans at this time to make covid-19 vaccination mandatory at AHN,” said AHN spokesperson Candace Herrington, “however, we strongly believe that everything everyone in our community should be vaccinated, and especially healthcare professionals who are at increased risk of exposure to the virus.

Nationally, at least 25% of workers who came into direct contact with patients in more than 2,500 hospitals had not received any dose of a covid-19 vaccine by the end of May, according to an analysis Federal Data Medscape Medical News / WebMD.

Here’s how regional health systems fare in terms of employee vaccination rates this week:

• Excel – It is confirmed that 62% of the 4,300 employees are fully vaccinated, although Dr Fox said that “this figure is probably higher due to the availability of the vaccine elsewhere in the community”, the workers not reporting the doses of vaccine that they could have received in non-Excela clinics.

• UPMC – 70% of more than 90,000 employees are vaccinated in 40 hospitals, 700 doctor’s offices, cancer centers and other providers.

“Covid-19 vaccination rates change over time,” said Andres. “UPMC targets even higher vaccine uptake for educated employees and vaccine availability to optimize the health of our workers, patients and communities. ”

• Allegheny Health Network – 72% of more than 21,000 employees in 13 hospitals and other providers and ambulatory care establishments.

“We continue to explore strategies that will help increase immunization rates both among the general public and among our employees,” said Herrington.

• Heritage Valley Health System – 69% of more than 3,000 employees in three hospitals as well as doctors’ offices and ambulatory care centers.

“At this time, Heritage Valley will not require its employees to receive the vaccine,” said Norm Mitry, President and CEO of Heritage Valley Health System. “Our main concern is, with the public unmasking and the arrival of the delta variant, that the covid-19 wave will return.”

• St. Clair Health – Almost 85% of 2,500 employees are fully vaccinated at St. Clair Hospital in Mt. Lebanon and affiliated establishments, the highest rate of this type reported in the region.

“Given the high vaccination rate among St. Clair Health employees, the vaccine is not mandatory and the focus remains on education,” a St. Clair Health spokesperson said via email. .

Influx of Deployment or Considered Employee Vaccination Mandates Comes as American Hospital Association Backs Support hospitals this adopt obligatory covid-19 vaccines Strategies. Last week, a coalition of seven other doctors organizations – including Society for Health care Epidemiology of America, Association for Professionals in Epidemiology and Infection, Infectious diseases Society of America and Pediatric infectious Diseases The company – went so far as to declare that vaccinations against covid “should to be a state of use for all Health care staff. “

Editor-in-chief Renatta Signorini contributed.