Flu vaccines mandatory for staff

Area hospital workers could face termination if they aren’t vaccinated.

Dayton gets boost from committee for UAV testing
11:48 p.m.
Patrol searches Springfield dealership for stolen cards
11:43 p.m.
Police headlines: Two accused of child endangering
11:41 p.m.
Ad calls Brown career politician
11:39 p.m.
Local Focus: Clark County for May 25
11:27 p.m.
> More headlines

By Ben Sutherly and Everdeen Mason, Staff Writers 9:36 PM Monday, August 29, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — All Community Mercy Health Partners employees — including those at Springfield Regional Medical Center and Mercy Memorial Hospital — must be vaccinated for the flu this fall, or else risk being fired.

“We require all employees to receive the flu vaccine,” said Dave Lamb, Community Mercy Health Partners spokesperson in an email. “It’s offered for free. It’s always been strongly encouraged, particularly for direct care staff. But now it’s required for the protection of staff, patients and visitors.”

Employees were informed this month that they must be vaccinated against the flu by Nov. 16 or face termination, Lamb said.

Employees with a documented and legitimate reason for not getting the vaccine, such as an allergic reaction, must wear masks during flu season.

And some other local hospitals may adopt similar policies.

The trend was prompted by last month’s policy decision by the American Hospital Association supporting mandatory flu vaccination for workers.

“Evidence has emerged over the past few years clearly indicating that health care workers can unintentionally expose patients to seasonal influenza if the workers have not been vaccinated, and that such exposure can be dangerous to vulnerable patients,” an AMA statement reads.

In a press release Monday, Dayton Children’s said workers must either get the flu shot or flu mist by Oct. 31 or face termination. Workers were told last year the vaccination would be a condition of continued employment this year, said Terrie Koss, infection preventionist at Dayton Children’s.

Volunteers also must be vaccinated.

Like Community Mercy, Dayton Children’s employees with a documented and legitimate reason for not being vaccinated will be required to wear masks while treating patients during the flu season, which runs through next spring.

“If an employee has the flu and takes care of a child with a pre-existing condition, they are putting that child at risk,” Koss said. The new mandate “also protects our employees and their families from contracting the flu from the patients we see.”

Hospital employees must be vaccinated for other diseases before they can work at the hospital. “Now the influenza vaccine will be included in this,” said Becky Mann, employee health manager at Dayton Children’s.

Last year, Dayton Children’s “strongly encouraged” employees to get vaccinated, and 96 percent of them did, the hospital said.

Dayton Children’s may soon have plenty of company in adhering to such a mandate. The Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association’s infection control group is meeting today to consider a mandatory flu vaccination policy for the region’s private and nonprofit hospitals, according to Bryan Bucklew, GDAHA’s president and CEO.

Richard Perna, a University of Dayton law professor who teaches employment law, said hospitals such as Dayton Children’s have a “legitimate interest” in making sure their workers are vaccinated.

Unlike public employers, he said, private employers such as Dayton Children’s do not have to consider “constitutional principles of privacy,” which are meant to protect citizens from government intrusions into their private lives.

Dayton Children’s policy does not raise ethical red flags, especially since it makes exceptions for medical and religious reasons, said Patricia Johnson, a UD philosophy professor who teaches business ethics.

Employers in Ohio have some latitude to regulate their workers’ conditions of employment, said Mike Brickner, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

“There is a reason for the hospital to mandate those types of vaccines,” Brickner said.

Share this article