Douglas hospital revises vaccination policy

Douglas hospital revises vaccination policy
 
DOUGLAS (WNE) — Memorial Hospital of Converse County revised its COVID-19 vaccination policy a third time Monday in light of an ever-shifting national landscape of federal mandates and court injunctions. 
While it softens the impact on employees from a vaccination-or-termination situation, the new policy doesn’t lift the requirement for vaccinations for those employees who work with patients directly but it also doesn’t go into effect until Jan. 1. 
The biggest change is it provides financial incentives, instead of punishments alone, to get employees vaccinated. 
“We have rescinded the (old) policy, so there are no vaccination requirements at this time,” CEO Matt Dammeyer said. “We’re (still) trying to get as many people vaccinated as possible.” 
The latest policy was sent out to all hospital staff Monday evening following additional changes, but Dammeyer said the reasoning behind delaying implementation until Jan. 1 is timing and the constantly changing situation with the federal mandates, especially those involving court injunctions over the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rules for healthcare providers. 
“People need time to process. We need time to process,” Dammeyer said Monday. “There may be some surprises we hadn’t thought of.”
While he expects CMS to prevail in court, the federal court injunction issued last week offered some breathing room for hospitals and other providers across the country. The original deadline to meet the vaccination mandate was Monday, Dec. 5.