NC hospital director: Why we mandated employee vaccination
If you’re lucky, COVID-19 will be a mild disruption in your life. A few days spent on the couch, nursing a fever or a scratchy throat. But among the unvaccinated patients at Johnston Health in Johnston County, it’s a tough row to hoe.
When their lungs can no longer draw in the oxygen they need to survive, we put a tube down their throats and hook them up to a ventilator that breathes for them. Many will not make it.
It’s heartbreaking because their severe illness could have been prevented — if only they had gotten the vaccine.
On one of our worst weeks in August, at the peak of the delta surge, more than half of our hospitalized patients, 84, had COVID. Only one of them had been vaccinated.
Right now, across the UNC Health system, more than 90% of all COVID ICU and ventilated patients are unvaccinated.
When you live this story, with wave after wave of this cruel disease, you know that vaccinations are the way to end this suffering.
And while I wrestled with the decision to require vaccines for our hospital employees, I know it was the right thing to do. We have all witnessed first-hand the effects of the pandemic. We have seen too many deaths in our hospital and our community.
When we sign up to go into health care, we’re held to a higher standard. We’ve got to take care of patients, and we’ve got to take care of one another. The public looks to us for guidance, and we need to set the example.
After announcing the vaccine mandate in July, as president of Johnston Health which operates two UNC Health system hospitals in Johnston County, I heard from many employees who appreciated our stance. At that point, about half of our workforce had taken the vaccine. Others weren’t against the shot; they just hadn’t made it a priority. And yes, there were those who protested as well.
By the deadline on Sept. 21, only 10 full-time employees chose not to comply with the mandate. And of our entire workforce, which includes contract, part-time and “as-needed” staff, nearly 95% complied.
I look forward to the day when we can talk about something other than COVID, such as plans for increasing hospital services in Clayton, expanding our lifesaving heart attack program, and adding more surgical specialty options and primary care. But that won’t happen until we get this virus behind us — and we get the vaccine into more arms.
I’m often asked what the community can do to thank our hard-working health care teams. My answer is always the same: Get the vaccine and persuade a loved one to do the same.
A loving, caring society protects those who are most vulnerable. Indeed, we’re called to look after our neighbors. But judging by Johnston County’s poor vaccination rate of 51.6%, we have plenty of work, and soul searching, still to do.