Hospitals are firing workers who won’t get vaccinated. What’s happening in SLO County?
California was one of the first states to mandate that health workers get vaccinated against coronavirus.
Now that the state’s deadline has passed, hospitals are still figuring out how best to implement this policy.
For many hospitals, this has translated to firing workers who refuse to get COVID-19 vaccines without approved exemptions. However, other medical treatment centers are taking more steps to encourage their workers to get vaccinated.
In San Luis Obispo County, one major health provider confirmed that its workers face termination if they refuse to comply with the vaccine mandate, while another is not commenting on the issue at this time.
California mandates health worker vaccinations
In August, the California Department of Public Health issued an order mandating vaccinations for workers in health care settings like hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and medical clinics. The order arrived as reported cases of the Delta variant were skyrocketing around the state.
“Increasing numbers of health care workers are among the new positive cases, despite vaccinations being prioritized for this group when vaccines initially became available,” the order read. “Recent outbreaks in health care settings have frequently been traced to unvaccinated staff members.”
Health care providers were ordered to ensure their workers were fully vaccinated by the end of September.
This did not apply to workers who qualified for religious or medical exemptions from vaccination.
According to the order, those individuals were required to submit forms to their workplaces regarding their exemption. If approved, they would then be required to test for coronavirus up to twice weekly and wear “a surgical mask or higher-level respirator” while working, according to the order.
The state also expanded its mandate in late September to include in-home, hospice, disability center and senior center health care workers. Those employees were given until Nov. 30 to comply with the order.
California health systems report higher vaccination rates among workers
The state does not have a central database tracking vaccinations rates among all of the state’s health workers, so figuring out how successful the mandate has been overall is difficult.
On Oct. 1, the Los Angeles Times reported that thousands out of the state’s estimated 2.4 million health workers remained unvaccinated after the deadline, though the vaccination rate among health workers appeared to be higher than among other populations.
According to the report, about 90% of employees at several major Southern California health systems were vaccinated as of the deadline.
In Sacramento, three major health care systems said vaccination rates were better among workers than the general public as of the deadline, according to a Sacramento Bee report.
In San Luis Obispo County, neither Dignity Health nor Tenet Health Central Coast — the two major local health providers — would disclose specifically how many of their employees are vaccinated.
Dignity Health spokeswoman Sara San Juan told The Tribune on Friday that nearly 90% of the health system’s employees across California are vaccinated or “have received an approved medical or religious exemption, and that number is growing every day.”
Dignity Health operates Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria. According to its website, the health system has more than 60,000 employees across California, Arizona and Nevada.
Tenet Health Central Coast spokesman Ara Najarian on Friday said the company, which operates Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, is not disclosing how many of its employees are vaccinated.
“Like all hospitals in California, Tenet Health Central Coast is complying with the state’s mandate requiring all hospital workers to be fully vaccinated or have an approved exemption,” he said.
SLO County health care company to put unvaccinated workers on leave
The state’s order did not specify what should happen if health care workers refused to comply with the coronavirus vaccine mandate by the Sept. 30 deadline, leaving that up to the workplaces themselves.
According to the Los Angeles Times report, hospitals statewide said they planned to respond to the mandate in a range of ways, with some saying they planned to fire unapproved unvaccinated workers Oct. 1. Other health care providers said they would suspend those workers, and others said they planned to take more time to convince those employees to comply.
In San Luis Obispo County, San Juan confirmed Dignity Health is taking steps enforce the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, starting with placing workers who have not begun the vaccination process and do not have approved exemptions on administrative leave.
“We will work with these employees to urge them to get vaccinated as quickly as possible,” she said.
San Juan added that employees whose exemption requests are not approved and who continue to refuse to be vaccinated “will no longer be eligible for employment.”
“Dignity Health is committed to maintaining the safest possible care environment for our patients and employees, and ensuring we are appropriately staffed to continue providing essential health care services for our communities,” she said. “Dignity Health supports state and federal guidelines that require COVID-19 vaccination for health care workers.”
Najarian said Tenet Healthcare is not commenting on how it is implementing the mandate at this time.
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 1:15 PM.
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