St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton Implements Mandatory Vaccination Policy
Effective December 14, 2021, St. Joe’s will require all of its healthcare workers (HCWs) to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. There will be very limited exemptions. To be considered fully vaccinated and compliant with the upcoming December 14 mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, HCWs must have received their second dose by November 30 (at least 14 days prior to December 14). The timing will allow healthcare workers who are unvaccinated the opportunity to get vaccinated and become compliant with the policy.
Those who do not become fully vaccinated by December 14 and do not have an approved exemption will face progressive disciplinary action, which will include termination of employment if they do not become compliant with the policy.
We have been very clear that if we did not achieve a 100 per cent vaccination rate of our eligible healthcare workers, we would move to a mandatory vaccination policy. As of October 21, 92 per cent of staff and 99 per cent of physicians are fully vaccinated. Another 2 per cent of our staff have their first vaccine and we anticipate they will be fully vaccinated before December 14.
Our vaccination rates demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of our healthcare workers support vaccination as an essential step to providing the safest environment possible in our hospital, and as a means to help keep themselves, their coworkers and their patients safe.
Mandatory vaccination is an important next step to protecting our healthcare workers and our patients. Vaccination is safe and effective, reduces risk of COVID-19 transmission, and reduces hospitalization. As healthcare workers, we have a collective duty to reduce the risk to our patients and other healthcare workers from the foreseeable harm of infection, particularly when the tools to do so are readily available.
Our approach is consistent with other Ontario hospitals who have also implemented mandatory vaccination policies and we have worked closely with hospitals in our region throughout the development of our vaccine policy. The province has made it clear they are considering mandatory vaccination of hospital workers and the Premier has stated that every hospital worker should be vaccinated. The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table has also published a statement in support of mandatory vaccination for hospital workers.
With the staffing shortages we are experiencing in healthcare in Ontario and beyond, we know there may be concerns about how the new requirements could impact our staffing. With the overwhelming majority of St. Joe’s healthcare workers vaccinated, we anticipate that there will be minimal impact on staffing overall. We are identifying areas that may require staffing contingency plans and determining how we can best support them with recruitment and other strategies to minimize staffing disruption as much as possible.
“All of our healthcare workers are valuable and have contributed greatly during the pandemic. Because healthcare workers have an elevated duty to utilize all available tools to prevent harm to vulnerable patients, the greater ethical emphasis is on the collective good of mandatory vaccination,” says Melissa Farrell, President of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.
“We ask that all eligible St. Joe’s healthcare workers who are unvaccinated make the choice to become vaccinated in the coming weeks. We want you to stay at St. Joe’s; it will require being vaccinated to be compliant with our mandatory vaccination policy.”