Legal Issues Impacting Your Business
A huge debate in the healthcare arena over the last several years has been whether or not to mandate flu vaccinations for employees who have patient contact or flu vaccinations for those who simply work in the facility without any anticipation of ongoing patient contact. The pros for such a plan are consistent in that any minimization of infection rate is great and would help the facility meet national mandates for infection control. The cons are more amorphous but no less compelling. Many employees have strong moral, philosophical and potentially religious objections to vaccination as a whole. Many employees fear vaccination based on a presumed link between vaccination and other potential diseases including everything from epilepsy to autism. Some employees are simply allergic to the vaccine and dread being singled out as the lone pariah in a vaccinated office by having to wear masks or otherwise be segregated and some people, a vocal minority, simply object being told what to do. Employers also have to be concerned about potential vaccination reactions and whether or not such reactions would be considered to be a worker’s compensation claim or might otherwise result in liability to the facility. With such complex and deeply felt personal issues it can be a tough balance between requiring employees to be vaccinated and adopting a wait and see attitude.
It should come as no surprise that the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (“NVAC”) has come out in strong support of mandatory vaccinations of all healthcare workers in a recent draft report. In fact, an early draft of the report would have mandated termination of those employees who are not vaccinated. NVAC has backed away from this stance and simply indicates that vaccinations should be mandatory with limited exceptions for issues such as documented allergies, life threatening conditions and clear religious reasons. NVAC bases its recommendations on the fact that infection of an ill or frail population can be significantly worse than infections spread within the general population and the fact that fewer than 62% of healthcare workers were vaccinated during the 2009-2010 flu season. NVAC’s future mandate is that 90% of all healthcare work forces be vaccinated, particularly for the flu. There is significant opposition to the requirements and recommendations of the report from a variety of groups, including various union groups, but given recent trends and the public fear of “super viruses” it is likely that federally mandatory vaccines are on the horizon.
A copy of the initial draft report is available in the December 19th, Federal Register 76 Fed. Reg. 78, 659
Jo Ellen Whitney
Davis Brown Law Firm
515.288.2500
www.davisbrownlaw.com
