Central Florida hospitals champion COVID-19 shot, but even some health care workers resist
A substantial number of Central Florida health care workers remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, even as President Joe Biden calls on hospitals and other medical providers to mandate the shot.
Federal data provides an imperfect snapshot of the situation, but the numbers show that hospitals and nursing homes have a ways to go to fully vaccinate their workforce.
Orlando Health estimates nearly one-in-three of its employees are unvaccinated more than nine months after the shot first became available to health care workers. About half of staff members at Florida nursing homes haven’t gotten a shot.
That puts patients at risk because unvaccinated people are more likely to catch COVID-19 and spread it to others, said Dr. Bernard Ashby, a Miami cardiologist and Florida state lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care.
“I strongly believe if you are working around vulnerable patients you should do whatever it takes to protect them,” he said. “If you’re unwilling to do that, you shouldn’t be a health care worker.”
The Walt Disney Co. and Orange County government have mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for their employees, but Central Florida’s largest hospital systems, including AdventHealth and Orlando Health, haven’t yet taken that step.
Health care leaders are worried that mandating the shot could worsen existing staff shortages and hurt their ability to recruit and retain badly needed employees.
Federal data gives a muddle glimpse
Patients have no easy way of accessing user-friendly data showing what percentage of hospital employees have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Federal data that does exist is muddled, and some hospitals are keeping their numbers secret. One hospital system serving Central Florida — UF Health — is tracking employee vaccinations but won’t publicly report it.
AdventHealth is reporting to the federal government that about half of the personnel working at its hospitals in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties is unvaccinated.
That data is misleading, and the true vaccination numbers are likely higher, said Jeff Grainger, a spokesperson for AdventHealth. Personnel who received the vaccine at an off-site pharmacy and didn’t report it to hospital officials are missed. The numbers reported to the federal government include non-clinical employees, as well as contractors and others not employed directly by AdventHealth.
Orlando Health estimates nearly 70% of its employees have gotten the COVID-19 vaccine. That’s only slightly better than the population at large. About 64% of eligible Floridians are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Orlando Health officials also said the federal data is misleading because it includes employees in private physician offices, EMTs and others not employed by the hospital system, making accurate tracking difficult.
“While we highly encourage vaccination for our team members and physicians, Orlando Health does not mandate COVID-19 vaccination,” said Dr. George Ralls, Orlando Health’s chief medical officer. “To ensure the rate of vaccination amongst our team is high, we have continued to offer vaccines at several Orlando Health locations, with no appointment needed.”
Right now, the federal government is only requiring hospitals to report their vaccination status on a voluntary basis, but the reporting will become mandatory on Oct. 1 with a new federal rule.
Better data exists for nursing home staff, and Florida is performing poorly. About 48% of staff in Florida nursing homes is vaccinated. Only Louisiana has a lower percentage, according to an analysis by AARP. Florida, Louisiana and Missouri are the only states that have vaccination rates below 50%.
Mandates spur worker shortage concerns
Biden announced his administration will mandate COVID-19 shots for about 17 million health care workers, but Central Florida hospitals are waiting for a rule to be issued next month that will explain how the mandate will work.
The mandates will also include nursing home employees.
Vaccine requirements are not new for people working in the health care industry. Many hospital systems, including AdventHealth and Orlando Health, require employees get flu shots. Exemptions are in place for medical and religious objections.
About 43% of U.S. hospitals have mandated the COVID-19 shot for their employees, according to the American Hospital Association.
Hospital leaders are in a tough spot when it comes to mandating the vaccine because of fears that they could lose employees, said Justin Senior, CEO of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida.
“Not every hospital has required COVID vaccination, so it can become a recruiting and retention issue,” he said. “When they say they are reviewing, they are trying to understand the impact it will have.”
About 15% of health care workers indicated they won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine in an August survey conducted by the COVID States Project, a research consortium of several universities.
As is the case with the population at large, health care workers with higher educational attainment are more likely to be vaccinated, the survey showed. The health care industry employs a wide spectrum of people from doctors to administrative assistants who handle office duties.
“Just because you are working in a health care setting doesn’t mean you have the background and knowledge of health care that separates you from the general population,” said Ashby, the Miami doctor.
About 96% of physicians and 88% of nurses said they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in surveys conducted by the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association.
Orange County’s vaccine mandate for government employees prompted a backlash. About half the men and women who respond to 911 calls for Orange County Fire Rescue have not turned in vaccine proof, and some say they will defy Mayor Jerry Demings’ order giving them until Sept. 30 to get vaccinated.
Elsewhere in the country, a small hospital in upstate New York paused delivering babies because dozens of staff members quit rather than get vaccinated under a state mandate.
Opponents to vaccine mandates argue that it’s a personal decision and should not be forced as a condition of employment. Gov. Ron DeSantis objects to vaccine mandates, saying they will worsen staffing issues in the health care field.
In a health care setting, unvaccinated workers can cause outbreaks that put others in grave danger, and the highly transmissible delta variant is increasing the threat for everybody, said William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University.
People who are vaccinated can still get COVID-19 and potentially spread the disease, but scientists say they are eight times less likely to become infected. If they are infected, they likely spread the virus for less time than unvaccinated people.
“We are in a war against the virus,” Schaffner said. “So far we have relied on a volunteer army, but the enemy has changed. We now have a volunteer army. It is no longer sufficient, so we are going to have to implement the draft.”
