MercyOne staff need COVID-19 vaccine

Pfizer Syringe-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. (Andy Abeyta / The Gazette)

Staff at the MercyOne facility throughout Iowa will need to be vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine by this fall. This is different from other local hospitals when it comes to requiring employees to inject.

Employees, contractors, and anyone doing business at a particular MercyOne medical facility must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 21st.

This includes hospitals and related clinics in MercyOne Dubuque, MercyOne Dyersville, MercyOne Clinton, MercyOne North Iowa, MercyOne Western.

Mandate is from West Des Moines-based Mercy One’s parent company, Trinity Health.A Catholic non-profit medical system headquartered in Chelsea, Michigan is in operation 90 hospitals in 22 states, Includes Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, South Dakota.

According to Trinity Health officials who announced a new rule this week, the requirement is 117,000 people nationwide as part of an effort to “stop the spread of the virus and keep all patients, colleagues, and the wider community safe.” Applies to the above employees.

Nearly 75% of Trinity Health employees have been vaccinated with at least one COVID-19 vaccine so far, officials said.

Tax exemptions are available for religious or health reasons, but must be formally requested, documented and approved.Employees who do not meet tax exemption standards and do not show evidence of vaccination will be dismissed, Trinity Health officials Told Detroit Free Press..

“Vaccines have proven safe and effective against symptomatic infections, hospitalizations and deaths, with more than 99% of COVID-19 deaths being vaccines,” a MercyOne official said in a statement. It occurs in unvaccinated people. “

According to Aaron Shine Blum, a spokesman for Mercy Iowa City, the new vaccine requirements will not affect Mercy Iowa City, as the rule applies only to MercyOne facilities that are directly connected to Trinity Health.

“We held several regular vaccine clinics for our colleagues, just as we did for the community. It saw a tremendous response,” Scheenblum wrote in an email. I am.

Mercy Iowa City officials refused to provide a percentage of vaccinated employees.

So-called state law came into force earlier this year, so-called “Vaccine passport” Political groups have been banned from issuing identification cards that reveal the status of individual vaccinations. The law does not apply to medical facilities, but hospitals and other Iowa companies are allowed to require employees to be vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine.

MercyOne requirements are the first for a local hospital

Hospitals in other regions have not taken steps to implement vaccination requirements for clinical staff or other employees.

Officials at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinic, the state’s largest hospital, have previously stated that they have no plans to require vaccines for staff and employees.

As of Friday, more than 15,300 UIHC employees have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. According to the available data On the health system website.

UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids will not require vaccines while receiving an emergency use authorization from federal authorities, spokeswoman Sarah Coritzo said. “Our leadership will be reassessed at that point,” she said, with approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Officials say 72% of UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids employees have been vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine so far.

“At UnityPoint Health, the health and safety of our patients, our community and our team members is at the heart of everything we do,” says Corizzo. “As with many other medical institutions, the medical system strongly encourages team members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, but it is our policy not to require it.”

Cedar Rapids’ Mercy Medical Center also does not require staff to be vaccinated. Officials did not say what percentage of employees were vaccinated, but said they were “very happy with the staff acceptance rate, which is well above the national average for hospitals and clinics.”

Dr. Tony Myers, Chief Medical Officer of Mercy, said:

“Our main goal remains the safety of our medical force so that we can take care of the residents of Linn County. About all the actions necessary to achieve that goal. We talk every day. “

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