Vaccine exemptions imperil most vulnerable residents
A recent study estimated that COVID vaccines prevented the deaths of 1,800 Ohio seniors in early 2021, highlighting their important role in saving lives.
Yet, our General Assembly is currently debating House Bill 435, legislation that extends overly broad legal protections for Ohio nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, while also increasing their opportunities to grant staff vaccine exemptions.
When you consider since the start of the pandemic more than 7,758 nursing home residents in Ohio have died due to COVID-19, this is troubling.
It is even more concerning once you learn nursing home residents could be less protected than patients in ICUS and children’s hospitals.
This is because the staff in these settings are not eligible for the same vaccine exemptions as nursing home staff. AARP Ohio is urging legislators to treat nursing homes and long-term care facilities comparably to these other settings also serving vulnerable patients.
AARP believes it is urgent and necessary to vaccinate everyone who can be vaccinated. Especially those who are serving our most vulnerable. While any staff vaccine requirements should include a meaningful process for exemptions based on disability/medical condition or religious objection, this bill goes beyond those exemptions.
But that’s not all. Like a one-two punch to the population most at risk, this bill not only virtually eliminates any assurance that staff who are serving them will be required to be vaccinated, it also removes any legal accountability for negligent actions. This combination creates an unacceptable level of risk for Ohio’s nursing home residents.
Even before the pandemic, AARP has long fought to ensure the health, safety, quality of care and quality of life for residents and staff in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Under no circumstances should the lives of nursing home residents and their rights to safety and health protections be considered less important or urgent to protect than other vulnerable patients. This includes the right of a nursing home resident to seek legal recourse.
Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities must know they are responsible for continuing the quality and level of care required of them and for which they are being compensated. We believe the right for residents and their families to seek legal intervention through the courts is critical to holding facilities accountable.
This also incentivizes facilities to self-correct by addressing problems to improve care before such problems mature to the point of requiring legal remedy from residents and their families. No family member who has lost a loved one due to neglect or abuse pursues this course of action lightly.
It is always an option of last resort, but it must remain an option. While there may be some circumstances beyond facilities’ control for which they should not be held responsible, it is essential that longterm care providers, as well as health care providers more broadly, remain accountable for any negligent actions to ensure long-term care residents have some protection and opportunity for redress.
When residents are being harmed, financially exploited, neglected or abused, they must be protected.
Ohio should not strip away the rights and protections of our nursing home residents. On behalf of our 1.5 million members statewide and all nursing home residents and their families, AARP Ohio calls for meaningful change and amendments to this legislation.
Now is not the time to limit nursing home and longterm care facilities resident protections. COVID-19 has devastated millions of families; removing these protections does nothing to prevent more loss or protect our most vulnerable residents.
Holly Holtzen is the state director for AARP Ohio, where she leads the advocacy and community outreach work of AARP staff, volunteers and its 1.5 million members in Ohio. She has a doctorate in health services research and has been in nonprofit policy and research for more than decade.