The health system has to do all it can to keep patients safe amid a pandemic, including having all staff vaccinated, Bloom told employees in his announcing the mandate in April.
"It is legal for health care institutions to mandate vaccines, as we have done with the flu vaccine since 2009," Houston Methodist said in a statement recently bolstered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's stance that employers are allowed to require COVID-19 vaccines.The federal government is not mandating vaccination, but "for some health care workers or essential employees, a state or local government or employer, for example, may require or mandate that workers be vaccinated as a matter of state or other law," according to the U.S."As the first hospital system to mandate COVID-19 vaccines, we were prepared for this," Boom stated.That includes the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which is requiring all employees be vaccinated by September 1, 2021More than 33,000 of approximately 44,000 workers are fully vaccinated, UPHS said in announcing its mandate late May