Health systems face backlash over mandate
Several in Oklahoma will soon require the COVID-19 vaccine for employees
Health care workers were among the hundreds to gather at an Edmond church last week, united by a common interest — they haven’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, and for now, they don’t want it.
Many of these healthcare professionals came because several health systems in Oklahoma will soon require the COVID-19 vaccine for employees, though workers can request medical or religious exemptions to the rule. Health officials and experts agree that the vaccines are highly effective at preventing the worst outcomes of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.
But some are troubled by policies that require the shots. Liza Greve, executive director of Oklahomans for Health and Parental Rights, a group that opposes the COVID-19 vaccine requirements,
said there will “absolutely be legal challenges” to the policies.
“I can tell you by the response that we received [Thursday], I don’t think these people are going to back down. I think that’s what their employers are hoping,” Greve said. “I think the vast majority, this is going to be their line in the sand.”
On Thursday, hundreds of people flocked to Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond for a town hall about the mandates, hosted by Oklahomans for Health and Parental Rights.
Once the church’s sanctuary filled with attendees — many of whom wore scrubs — people filed into seats in an overflow area. The parking lot hit its capacity, so some attendees had to park at a church across the street. Greve said at least 750 were in attendance.
COVID-19 vaccinations are an important tool in combating severe infections, and health care workers were among the first to be eligible for them.
But attendees of Thursday’s town hall shared a variety of hesitations about the COVID-19 vaccine. Some are concerned with long-term vaccine side effects, which the CDC has said are “extremely unlikely.” Others said they feared taking a vaccine that hasn’t yet received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
All three COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. were authorized for emergency use after testing and trials involving thousands of people to ensure their safety and efficacy. Full FDA approval could come in a matter of months, officials have said.
“I don’t feel comfortable right now taking a vaccine that has not been approved,” said one attendee, Tammy Cobb, who said she worked in case management at St. Anthony Hospital, a non-patient facing role.
“I don’t think a mandate makes sense at all, for anybody,” Cobb said. “Everybody should have a choice of whether they want to take the shot.”
Another attendee, Leann Keenan, a sonographer with McBride Orthopedic Hospital, said while her employer doesn’t currently require the COVID-19 vaccine, she said she feared that was on the horizon. She said she wasn’t ruling out getting the vaccine at some point in the future.
“Right now, I don’t feel like there’s more I need to know,” she said. “But maybe more time for the vaccine to be out and developed and safer.”
One attendee, Mike Brumbeloe, said he’s out of work because of an injury, but before that, he was working at a hospital as a registered nurse. He said he’s concerned that, should he return to work, the COVID-19 vaccine would be required.
“I have a lot of respect for the people that have taken the vaccine. I don’t hold any ill will toward the people taking it,” Brumbeloe said, adding that many former coworkers of his have been vaccinated. “But at this time, I just don’t feel this is right for me. And I don’t feel it’s right to be forced to have that done.”
Possible challenges
Some Republican lawmakers have urged Gov. Kevin Stitt to intervene in the health systems’ vaccination policies. In a letter to the governor this month, they called on Stitt to issue an executive order that prohibits health
care facilities from mandating the COVID-19 vaccine.
The governor hasn’t publicly responded to the letter, and no such executive order has been issued.
Still, there are likely to be legal challenges to the policies, said Adam Childers, an attorney with Crowe & Dunlevy and co-chair of the firm’s labor and employment practice group.
Houston Methodist, in Texas, was among the first health systems to require the COVID-19 vaccine for its employees.
Employees sued over the mandate, but a judge tossed the lawsuit in June, writing in the dismissal that Methodist “is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus,” according to the Houston Chronicle. The ruling is being appealed, according to the Washington Post.
Childers said there could be possible challenges to employer vaccine mandates in Oklahoma under the public policy discharge tort, which says if someone’s fired for refusing to do something that’s in violation of a “compelling Oklahoma public policy,” they could claim they shouldn’t be fired for that reason.
In that case, someone might argue that it’s “public policy” in Oklahoma that someone shouldn’t be mandated to take a vaccine while it’s under emergency-use authorization.
“That exact same kind of issue was taken up by the federal courts in Texas, and that claim was denied,” said Childers, whose firm is working with several Oklahoma health systems.
While what happened in Texas is not binding in Oklahoma, “employment defense practitioners like myself look at that and say, well, the actual compelling public policy is: we need to have as many people vaccinated in the healthcare setting as possible,” he said. ‘Part of the common good’
Mercy — like the other health systems soon to require the COVID-19 vaccine — has long required its employees take an annual flu vaccine. Alisa Pruitt rolls up her sleeve a few weeks early each year to get the shot before her coworkers do and field their questions.
Last year, coworkers again looked to her for advice, asking: Will you take the COVID-19 vaccine when it’s available?
“Initially, my answer was no,” said Pruitt, who is Mercy’s manager of coworker health in Oklahoma. “But then, as we started seeing just our numbers rise in our community ... I just realized I needed to change my way of thinking.” By the time COVID-19 vaccines were available, Pruitt was ready for hers. Now, she has tough conversations with other employees who are hesitant to be vaccinated.
“Those coworkers that saw how this illness can completely take a healthy person and hospitalize them, and potentially move them into the ICU on a ventilator — those are the people who realize how important the vaccine is,” Pruitt said. “I just don’t know how to communicate that to the rest of the people out there who aren’t willing to take it.”
Mercy has about a quarter of its employees yet to be vaccinated, said Dr. Jesse Campbell, community president of Mercy Clinic Oklahoma. He likened the COVID-19 vaccine requirement to equipment requirements on a construction site.
“You’re asked to wear steel-toed boots, you’re asked to wear a hard hat ... those are all important things to prevent you from being injured,” Campbell said.
Ensuring employees are vaccinated protects them from illness, he said, but also protects patients and sets an example in the community.
“I look at it as part of the common good in public health that as healthcare coworkers, we can demonstrate our belief in the vaccine … and hopefully, maybe, induce or encourage someone that’s hesitant in the community to also be vaccinated,” Campbell said.
Those who don’t get vaccinated or receive an exemption by the deadline will no longer meet eligibility requirements for employment at Mercy. The same goes for SSM Health, said Dr. Kersey Winfree, regional vice president for medical affairs and chief medical officer for SSM Health St. Anthony.
The delta variant inspired a sense of urgency in putting a vaccination policy in place. The health care workforce is already in a tenuous place, Winfree said.
The consequences of a more virulent COVID strain infecting the workforce — creating an even more tenuous staffing situation — is “far greater than the consequences of potentially having people choose not to continue with us over a decision not to be vaccinated.” Hospital systems’ policies on the COVID vaccine
h Integris Health: Currently, a COVID-19 vaccination isn’t required for Integris Health providers and caregivers. That may change in the future, a spokeswoman said. When the vaccines receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, Integris Health will likely have a similar policy for them as it does with the seasonal flu vaccine, which is required annually except for those who are granted exemptions for a documented medical or religious reason.
h Mercy: Mercy will require full COVID-19 vaccination for its employees and volunteers — all those who work or serve in Mercy facilities — effective Sept. 30. Exemptions may be granted for medical or religious reasons.
h OU Health: OU Health is requiring that its faculty, staff, trainees and students on rotations, as well as employees in patient and non-patient care areas, complete COVID-19 vaccination by Aug. 31. Exemptions will be granted in limited circumstances, including for medical or religious reasons.
h SSM Health: SSM Health will require all of its team members — employees, providers and volunteers — to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of September. Religious and medical exemptions may be granted.