Saint Alphonsus to require Idaho employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19
Employees at Saint Alphonsus Health System in Idaho will need to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to keep their jobs.
Trinity Health, a national health system that includes Saint Al’s in Idaho and Oregon, on Thursday announced that it will require all of its employees, contractors and those conducting business with its health care facilities to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The policy is effective immediately.
“Safety is one of our core values and because of our commitment to providing safe care, ensuring our colleagues and providers are vaccinated is what is required at this time. We must trust the science and live up to our core values,” said Odette Bolano, president and CEO of Saint Alphonsus Health System.
The health system’s new mandate follows a national reckoning over whether employers — in particular, those working in health care — should require COVID-19 vaccines of their workers to protect patients. A Texas hospital, Houston Methodist, faced a mass exodus of staff members who were fired or resigned after the hospital won a court battle over its mandated COVID-19 vaccine policy.
Snider said Saint Alphonsus hopes its employees understand and comply with the new policy. Saint Al’s already requires employees who work in its health care facilities to receive annual flu shots, said Dr. Steven Nemerson, chief clinical officer for the health system.
In Idaho, less than half of the population 12 and older has been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to state data.
About 75% of Trinity Health workers are vaccinated, but officials want to close the gap, according to a Saint Alphonsus news release Thursday. Mark Snider, spokesperson for Saint Alphonsus, told the Statesman that Saint Al’s estimates that about 72% of its workers in Idaho and Oregon have been vaccinated.
Exemptions allowed for COVID vaccine
Employees at Trinity Health must submit proof of COVID-19 vaccination by Sept. 21. The employer will allow exemptions for “religious or health reasons,” but they must be “formally requested, documented and approved” by the health system, according to the release.
Saint Alphonsus health system operates two hospitals, about a dozen urgent care clinics and several emergency rooms in Idaho. It employs about 6,100 workers in Idaho and Oregon, Snider said. In Oregon, however, the law does not allow health care employers to mandate vaccinations, so Saint Al’s employees there will simply be strongly encouraged to be vaccinated, according to the release.
Some Idaho lawmakers tried to ban policies that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine as a term of employment, but they weren’t successful. Gov. Brad Little’s executive order banning “vaccine passports” in April barred state agencies from requiring proof of vaccination, but there is no law in Idaho preventing private employers from doing so.
Nearly all COVID-19 deaths since the start of vaccinations — estimates are between 98% and 99.5% — have been among those who did not receive the vaccine, according to the White House and an Associated Press analysis. Public health experts say all three coronavirus vaccines authorized in the U.S. for emergency use have so far been effective against the variants, too.
Contractors with Saint Alphonsus have been notified of the new policy, Snider said.
“Our core value of safety includes being able to protect patients and members of the community, and essentially this decision has been made that this is the right thing to do as a health system,” Snider said Thursday. “We will have to see what the reaction is from the colleagues. They’ve been made aware of what the requirements are. We hope they will comply.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 1:51 PM.
