Hospital associations in the District and Maryland were among the first in the country to announce that staff at their facilities would be required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, but vaccine mandates have yet to be adopted in the region’s largest hospitals.
Support our journalism. Subscribe today. arrow-right
Some hospitals that announced the mandate in June say their vaccine requirements will go into effect by Sept. 1, while others say they have not decided on dates or are waiting for the vaccines to receive full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
A wave of similar mandates for health-care workers has spread across the country in recent weeks, with state officials in California and some of the biggest hospital systems in the country issuing such requirements.
Virginia state workers need to show proof of covid vaccination or get tested, Northam says
The emergence of mandates has been driven by concern about a surge of covid-19 cases nationally involving the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus and by persistently low vaccination rates nationwide, including among health-care workers — most of whom have had access to the vaccine since December 2020.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Jacqueline D. Bowens, the president of the D.C. Hospital Association, said in an interview in June that “both the science and the safety of the vaccine” had led her group to require hospital employees to get vaccinated.
“We believed this was the right thing to do,” Bowens said. “What we’re trying to do is what we believe is in the best overall interests of our workforce and the communities we serve.”
Health-care workers can get the coronavirus and transmit it to patients.
The announcements earlier this summer by the D.C. and Maryland hospital associations said that individual hospitals would establish their own timelines for employees to be vaccinated. Some hospital administrators said they did not have plans to fire employees who did not comply but would require them to undergo weekly coronavirus testing.
As covid cases rise — again — doctors in D.C. area are ‘holding their breath’
The Virginia Healthcare & Hospital Association said in a statement July 18 that it “supports hospitals and health systems amending their existing vaccine policies to require COVID-19 vaccines for their health care employees.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
The association cited the efficacy of vaccines in its announcement, noting that since vaccines became widely available in late January, Virginia state data shows that 99 percent of covid-19 hospitalizations and 99.3 percent of covid-19 deaths have occurred in unvaccinated people.
The association said that because “each hospital and health system is unique,” it encouraged them individually to “determine the appropriate time to implement a requirement.”
As health systems have imposed vaccine mandates, backlash has followed. At Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, one of the first hospitals to require that their employees be vaccinated, there were protests and mass suspensions, and employees filed a lawsuit alleging that the policy infringed on their rights.
Story continues below advertisement
And in Virginia last month, protesters at Warren Memorial Hospital in Front Royal rallied against a vaccine mandate for health-care workers there that was announced by Valley Health, which runs Warren Memorial and other hospitals in Western Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley.
Advertisement
The Washington Post asked the biggest hospitals in D.C. and the surrounding suburbs if they are requiring staff to be vaccinated; if so, when that requirement will take effect; and what percentage of staffers are currently vaccinated. Here is what they said:
● Johns Hopkins Medicine: Requiring all staffers to be vaccinated by Sept. 1. If staffers are not vaccinated by that date, they will be required to submit to weekly testing. This includes Sibley Memorial Hospital in D.C. and Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md.
Story continues below advertisement
● Children’s National Hospital: The D.C. hospital is requiring all staffers to be vaccinated by Sept. 30. About 86 percent of staffers at Children’s are in compliance, a spokeswoman said, with 81 percent vaccinated and the rest having submitted eligible reasons to forgo vaccination.
Advertisement
● United Medical Center: The D.C. hospital is “working towards” requiring the coronavirus vaccine for all staffers but has not yet unveiled the policy, a spokeswoman said. She said it is difficult to know what percentage of the staff has been vaccinated because not all employees get their shots at the hospital.
● The University of Maryland Medical System: Requiring all staffers to be vaccinated by Sept. 1. Individuals who decline must undergo weekly coronavirus testing. The mandate includes the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center in Largo.
Story continues below advertisement
● Luminis Health: Staff members must be vaccinated by Oct. 1, with exemptions allowed for medical and religious reasons. About 75 percent of staffers and volunteers have been vaccinated, a spokesman said. Luminis includes Doctors Community Hospital in Lanham and Anne Arundel Medical Center, both in Maryland.
Advertisement
● MedStar Health: Requiring its staff to be vaccinated after vaccines receive formal FDA approval. About 70 percent of staffers have been vaccinated, a spokeswoman said. This includes MedStar Washington Hospital Center, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital in D.C., and MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton, Md.
● Inova: Requiring all staffers to be vaccinated by Sept. 1. This includes Inova Fairfax Hospital and Inova Alexandria Hospital, both in Virginia.
Story continues below advertisement
● Sentara Healthcare: Not yet requiring vaccinations but “strongly” encourages staffers to get vaccinated and will continue to evaluate the situation, a spokesperson said. More than 65 percent of its staffers have received the vaccine. This includes Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge, Va., and a cluster of hospitals in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area, where the system is based.
Advertisement
As covid cases rise — again — doctors in D.C. area are ‘holding their breath’
The pandemic rocked this small hospital in a mostly Black suburb. Now it’s trying to grow.
Breakthrough cases are extremely rare. Here’s what it’s like to be one of them.
Local newsletters: Local headlines (8 a.m.) | Afternoon Buzz (4 p.m.)
Like PostLocal on Facebook | Follow @postlocal on Twitter | Latest local news