Nursing home workers concerned over the president’s vaccine mandate
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
President Joe Biden and his administration's requiring of nursing home staff to be vaccinated in order to receive Medicaid and Medicare funding has caused concerns for some nursing home staff.
The order is the latest step taken by the White House to increase vaccinations in the United States.
Roystan Pais, executive director at The Bluffs Nursing Home said he believes the mandate will cause workers to leave and find work elsewhere.
"I think the intention was good here to protect the residents but I think it will have the opposite effect and dire consequences," Pais said.
Pais said 87% of the residents and 63% of the staff at the nursing home are vaccinated, and there hasn't been a major outbreak since the beginning of the vaccine effort.
Pais said The Bluffs, which receives federal funding, is already short-staffed and cannot afford to lose more.
"Right now we are limiting our admissions because we do not have the staff so that's my big concern," Pais said.
Nikki Strong, executive director of the Missouri Healthcare Association said they encourage vaccination but have some concerns with the mandate.
"It's going to be counterproductive all it's going to do is cause folks to leave and go to other health care settings and we are going to be scrambling or struggling to figure out how we are going to provide the care," Strong said.
Strong had concerns the directive was unclear.
"The way we understand the directive is that this only applies to nursing home workers... how does this apply to hospice that comes to nursing homes you know does it apply to them, how does this apply to the inspectors that come to nursing homes," Strong said.
Health officials say vaccinating nursing home employees is the best way to keep people safe.
Sara Humm with the Columbia/Boone County Health Department said it is common in nursing homes to have residents that may be immunocompromised or have weak immune systems.
"When working with people that are at high risk for a severe case of COVID-19, hospitalization or even death the more people vaccinated in those environments the better," Humm said.
Humm said they recommend people working with high-risk people take all precautions to reduce the risk.
Over 80% of nursing home residents in the state are fully vaccinated.
Missouri ranks third-lowest among states for the percentage of vaccinated nursing home staff at nearly 48%. Cases are surging in the state, powered by the more contagious delta variant of the virus.
