Houston Methodist rolled out its mandatory vaccination policy March 31, making it the first health system to mandate vaccination of its workforce. Many organizations have since followed suit, and — with the FDA's full approval of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Aug. 23 for use in people ages 16 and older — the system's chief executive said he expects the number of mandates to continue rising.
"Quite a few [healthcare institutions] had announced an intention to mandate once the vaccine was FDA approved, so now that it's FDA approved, you're going to see that accelerate even faster," Houston Methodist President and CEO Marc Boom, MD, told Becker's. "I have no doubt that in a pretty short period of time you're going to see the overwhelming majority of hospitals in the country will do what's right and will mandate the vaccine for their employees so they can protect their patients."
When Houston Methodist announced its mandate, the system set April 15 as the deadline for managers to receive at least one dose or obtain an exemption. More than 99 percent of the management team had complied by April 15. By June 7, all 26,000 employees were required to comply.
A total of 153 employees either resigned during a two-week suspension period or were terminated June 22 for not complying with the mandate.
Overall, Dr. Boom said, the mandate has been a success, with no severely ill employees in the intensive care unit for COVID-19 (compared to nine around this time last summer).
U.S. hospitals have increasingly joined Houston Methodist in requiring vaccination for employees amid the latest COVID-19 wave fueled by the delta variant. The number of hospitals with coronavirus vaccination policies for their workforces as of Aug. 18 was about 2,150, up from zero 4½ months ago, according to an estimate from the American Hospital Association.
The association could not specify how many of these policies require vaccination as a condition of employment, but it seems like most of them do, with certain exemptions for religious and medical reasons, association spokesperson Colin Milligan told Becker's.
Many healthcare organizations, including West Reading, Pa.-based Tower Health, Boston-based Mass General Brigham, have said they would also require vaccination after FDA approval, and some Americans have indicated they were waiting on full FDA approval to get vaccinated.
Therefore, Houston Methodist, which reported 850 COVID-19 patients in its hospitals Aug. 23, said it is hopeful the FDA approval will move things toward getting more Americans vaccinated and making society safer.
"This should move things to where anyone who had any lingering doubts should put those aside, listen to the physicians, listen to the scientists, listen to the FDA, listen to the hospital systems and move forward and go get vaccinated, and let's bring this pandemic under control," said Dr. Boom.
In addition to hospitals, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, told CNN Aug. 22 that full FDA approval would also likely lead to new business requirements.
"For businesses and universities that have been thinking about putting vaccine requirements in place in order to create safer spaces for people to work and learn, I think that this move from the FDA ... will actually help them to move forward with those kinds of plans," Dr. Murthy told the news channel.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said U.S. employers can legally require employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if they comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other equal employment opportunity considerations.
Dr. Boom's message for systems that have not yet decided to require vaccination for employees: "You've now got everything needed to make this decision and move forward and do the right thing to protect your patients. Move forward, and let's get healthcare workers across the country all vaccinated."