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Houston Methodist is sidelining nearly 200 workers for two weeks without pay for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. The arrests come a day after dozens of people protested the policy outside one of its medical centers in Baytown, Texas.
Dr. Mark Baum, chief executive of Houston Methodist, said the hospital system – a medical center and six community hospitals – has set a Monday deadline for all employees to be fully immunized against the coronavirus, with nearly 25,000 employees getting their vaccinations in a timely manner. The Tuesday note was emailed to CBS MoneyWatch.
The hospital suspended 178 workers for not complying fully with the policy, including 27 who received one dose of the vaccine, “so I hope they get their second dose soon,” Baum stated.
The order earlier set June 21 as the date for the termination of unvaccinated workers, with no exemptions.
Bohm, who added that he understands that the situation “may be difficult for some who are grieving the loss of a colleague who decided not to vaccinate.”
Companies allowed to order COVID vaccines 05:32
Houston Methodist awarded vaccinated workers a $500 bonus in March, while noting that the shots would not be voluntary for the workers indefinitely. Announcing the mandate in April, Bloom told employees the health system must do everything it can to keep patients safe amid the pandemic, including vaccinating all staff.
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Houston Methodist policy sparked a lawsuit by a group of unvaccinated workers, who claimed they were being used as “human testing animals” in a complaint filed by Houston district attorney and conservative activist Jared Woodville.
The medical system’s stance is also on display in a state where Republican Governor Greg Abbott on Monday signed a law banning companies or government entities from requiring proof of vaccination. It’s not clear what the new law means for employer authorizations, and Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“It is legal for health care organizations to mandate vaccines, as we have done with the flu vaccine since 2009,” Houston Methodist said in a statement recently reinforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s position that employers are allowed to order COVID-19 vaccines.
The federal government does not mandate vaccination, but “for certain health care workers or essential employees, state or local government or an employer, for example, may require or mandate worker vaccination as a matter of state or other law,” according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“As the first hospital system to mandate COVID-19 vaccines, we were prepared for that,” Baum stated. “As of today, many other major healthcare centers have followed our lead and announced their own vaccine mandates, and more will soon follow.”
That includes the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which requires all employees to be vaccinated by September 1, 2021. Announcing its mandate in late May 2021, UPHS said in announcing its mandate in late May 2021. More than 33,000 of about 44,000 workers have been vaccinated.
Along the same lines, two major US airlines, United and Delta, recently said they would not hire unprotected workers.
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