WakeMed has set a deadline for its 10,000 employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19
Employees of WakeMed Health and Hospitals will have more time than their peers at other Triangle hospitals to get vaccinated against the coronavirus this fall.
WakeMed told employees this week that they have until Nov. 12 to comply with the health system’s vaccination mandate. That’s more than seven weeks after the Sept. 21 deadline set by Duke Health and UNC Health for their employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
WakeMed decided to require the vaccinations for all 10,000 of its employees in late July, shortly after Duke, UNC and several other hospitals across the state announced their own mandates. But WakeMed did not set a deadline until this week. It spent that time developing a strategy for reaching its goal, which includes allowing enough time to get it done, said spokeswoman Becky Scolio.
“The decision makers on this scrutinized scientific data about the vaccine, evaluated what was working and not working for other health systems and spent a lot of time getting what we hope is a good process in place that gives our team ample time to get vaccinated and get answers to questions they need,” Scolio wrote by email.
WakeMed estimates that about 75% of its employees have been vaccinated for COVID-19. Like other hospital systems, WakeMed did not track vaccinations among its workers for privacy reasons, Scolio said. With the mandate now in place, WakeMed and other hospital systems are asking employees to report whether they’ve been vaccinated or not.
Vaccines were made available to front-line health workers in North Carolina in December, but hospitals did not required their employees to get them. Most said they did not want to force workers to receive a vaccine that was approved by the Food and Drug Association for use on an emergency basis. In addition, all three vaccines, from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, were developed and released quickly, by historical standards, making some people hesitant.
But by July, the new contagious delta variant of the virus had begun to fuel another surge in coronavirus cases, and hospitals reconsidered. On July 22, the association that represents hospitals in the state came out in favor of mandatory vaccination for all health care workers, the same day Duke and UNC announced the mandate for workers at their hospitals in the Triangle.
Since then, the FDA has given full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for people 16 and older. Moderna has requested full approval as well, and Johnson & Johnson says it expects to do the same later this year.
There has been some pushback to the mandates, including picketing outside some hospitals. In early August, nearly every Republican member of the state House signed a letter urging hospital leaders to reconsider their mandates. The lawmakers said they had heard from constituents who felt “blindsided” by a “rushed and hasty decision.”
But hospital leaders say they expect the vast majority of their employees will comply with the mandates. Hospitals will make exceptions for medical reasons and will consider exemptions for religious ones as well.
Dr. Seth Brody, chief physician executive at WakeMed, noted that hospitals have required employees to get annual flu shots for years and that children must get a host of vaccines before they start public school.
“Mandating vaccines is not new,” Brody said at a press conference Wednesday. And with the surge in COVID-19 patients pushing hospitals to their capacities, it makes sense.
“The vaccine mandate is there to protect our patients, protect our colleagues, protect each other and protect the community,” Brody said. “And the scientific evidence for it is really solid and very good.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 1:02 PM.
