The Pennsylvania Health Care Association (PHCA) criticized last week a recent state Department of Health (DOH) mandatory vaccine goal for skilled nursing homes.
Calling the nursing home vaccine goal a mandate without a path to achievement, Zach Shamberg, president and CEO of PHCA, said any nursing home vaccination goals would be better if the DOH spoke first with industry experts.
“This is, once again, a decision that was made by the Department of Health without input from industry experts, frontline caregivers, and providers from the Pennsylvania Health Care Association – which represents nearly one-third of all Pennsylvania nursing homes,” Shamberg said. “Working with providers – not punishing them – will produce better outcomes. Providers know their workers best. PHCA remains committed to supporting and empowering nursing homes throughout the commonwealth to make the decision that is in the best interest of their caregivers and the residents they serve.”
On Aug. 12, the DOH released a statement in which Executive Deputy Secretary Keara Klinepeter said the expectation for all of Pennsylvania’s skilled nursing facilities (SNF) would be to have at least 80 percent of staff vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 1.
Currently, only 12.5 percent of facilities have staff vaccinated at or above 80 percent, which is not enough from a public health perspective to prevent future outbreaks of the virus, the department said.
“As COVID-19 cases rise, we are committed to helping prevent outbreaks by stopping COVID-19 from entering a nursing home in the first place, and one of the best ways we can do this is through vaccinating staff in skilled nursing facilities,” Klinepeter said. “Getting 80 percent of nursing home staff vaccinated is aggressive but achievable. As we have seen over the past 17 months, COVID-19 kills. Getting vaccinated is the most effective measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the health of residents, staff, and the community.”
Facilities that do not achieve an 80 percent vaccination rate will have their unvaccinated workers subject to more frequent testing, the department said.
Shamberg said the goal was more of a threat than a solution.
“Today’s announcement by the Pennsylvania Department of Health is yet another mandate – on one of the most regulated industries in the United States – with no accompanying solutions to achieve it,” he said. “Long-term care providers have been working diligently since the COVID-19 vaccine became available to educate workers and residents on the benefits of the vaccine. Instead of proposing solutions to increase vaccine acceptance rates in long-term care, the Department of Health, today, threatened providers and issued a punitive mandate on nursing homes if 80 percent vaccination rates are not achieved.”
Shamberg said nursing home workers are already tested monthly, weekly, or biweekly based on county positivity rates, following a directive from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.