Nearly all Henry Ford workers vaxxed
Hospital system extends deadline to Oct. 1 in order to boost 98% to full count
It has taken plenty of work and encouragement, but on Monday Henry Ford Health System announced that 98% of its employees have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have received at least the first dose.
Henry Ford, which operates five hospitals in Michigan, was the first health care system in the state to mandate that employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine back on June 29. At that point only 68% of their team members had been vaccinated.
The deadline was Friday, Sept. 10, at midnight.
“Today’s update of 98% is a testament to how deeply our team cares about their role in ending this pandemic,” said Bob Riney, Henry Ford Health System’s president of healthcare operations and chief operating officer, said at a media briefing on Monday. “From the beginning we have pledged to help every team member meet the vaccine requirement.”
Riney said no one has been terminated. Those who did not meet the deadline — he did not have an exact number — will be suspended without pay until Oct. 1. At any point before then, if they decide to get vaccinated they can return to work.
“Should a team member choose not to be vaccinated by Oct. 1, they will voluntarily resign from our organization. It’s long been our hope and goal to keep every one of our team members,” Riney said.
Voluntary resignation instead of termination is the goal.
“By voluntarily resigning they’re eligible for rehire so if they have a change of heart at any time and get vaccinated and they want to return to work, they won’t have on their record that they were terminated but rather that they resigned,”
Riney said.
He said that the FDA’s decision in August to give the Pfizer vaccine full approval tipped the scales for some who were on the fence.
“Whatever has driven their change of heart, we are encouraged to see so many follow the science,” Riney said.
He said the Biden administration’s decision to mandate vaccines for health care workers, announced last Thursday, has changed the conversation.
“For some employees who may have felt I’ll just go to a healthcare organization where vaccines aren’t mandated, it does let them know that really if you work in healthcare you’re going to have a requirement to be vaccinated as announced by President Biden. So I think it changes that conversation,” Riney said.
About 50 Henry Ford employees filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to stop the vaccine mandate last week, but it was withdrawn on Friday following Biden’s announcement.
He said they’re been working with staffing agencies so they can bring in additional worker if needed.
Like many of the health care systems in the country, they also are facing a staffing shortage so had two major job fairs.
“While there have been a small number of staff that have resented the notion of a vaccine mandate when we announced earlier, we also had healthcare workers that applied for jobs. They were thrilled and wanted to be working for a place that was taking a bold and courageous step to make sure that we are a fully vaccinated environment for their own safety,” Riney said.