The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Lamont to delay nursing home vaccine mandate
Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to issue an executive order late Friday delaying his vaccine mandate for nursing home workers until later this month, granting the request of the state’s largest health care union, which asked for more time to comply.
A spokesman for the governor said the deadline would be pushed from Sept. 7 to Sept. 27, just three days before Lamont’s pandemic emergency powers are due to expire.
The union, SEIU District 1199, did not immediately comment to the news Friday afternoon.
The delay comes as at least one nursing home was unlikely to meet the state-imposed deadline while workers at several other homes have quit or are prepared to resign over the order.
Union spokesman Pedro Zayas declined to name the home, which employs 1199 workers, but said residents could have to be moved if adequate staffing isn’t in place.
“Moving these people around would be very bad for their health and well-being,” Zayas said earlier Friday. “We continue to be in a pandemic.”
Workers must get their first shot by Sept. 27, with an appointment scheduled for their second, or their employer could face a $20,000-per-day fine.
The union, which requested a 30-day extension, said it supported the vaccine mandate but needed more time to educate workers and to prevent staff from getting fired or having to resign for not rolling up their sleeves, further exacerbating an already dire worker shortage.
Vaccination rates for staff vary widely by nursing home from 42 percent to 100 percent, according to state data. The average vaccination rate — 76% currently — has creeped up in recent weeks.
At the 17 nursing homes operated by Genesis Healthcare, all staff are immunized, “excluding the small number of individuals who received medical or religious exemptions,” Lori Mayer, a spokesperson for the company, said by email Friday.
Mayer declined to specify how many employees have received one of the two exemptions allowed under Lamont’s order. She also declined to provide a count of the employees who were “not willing to comply with the policy.”
A spokesman for iCare Health Network, which operates 11 nursing homes, said the number of resignations and exemptions is in flux as the company works “right up until the deadline” to get employees to comply.
“Our clinical operations team and nursing home leadership have been meeting daily to make sure we are utilizing all strategies available to us and give employees as many opportunities to receive the vaccine as possible,” David Skoczulek, vice president of business development, said in an email Friday.
Overall, the homes are “in good shape,” he said, “due to the
fact that we had high vaccination rates across our care centers from the first vaccine push.”
Mag Morelli, president of Leading Age Connecticut, a trade organization that includes 40 nursing homes, said employers will decide on a case-by-case how to handle staff who are granted an exemption, which could include reassigning them to another position if they directly
care for residents given they won’t be immunized.
“Most people are working hard either to get workers vaccinated or in compliance with the exemptions,” Morelli said.
But when the deadline comes, she said, “there will be people who will have to resign.”