COVID-19 vaccine to be required for MercyOne staff

Staff at MercyOne facilities across Iowa will be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by this fall, diverging from other local hospitals when it comes to mandating shots for employees.

Employees, contractors and anyone conducting businesses in certain MercyOne health care facilities will be required to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 by Sept. 21.

That includes hospitals and associated medical clinics at MercyOne Dubuque, MercyOne Dyersville, MercyOne Clinton, MercyOne North Iowa and MercyOne Western.

The mandate comes from West Des Moines-based MercyOne’s parent company, Trinity Health. The Catholic not-for-profit health system, headquartered in Chelsea, Mich., operates 90 hospitals across 22 states, including Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota.

The requirement applies to more than 117,000 employees nationwide as part of an effort to “stop the spread of the virus and keep all patients, colleagues and the broader communities safe,” according to Trinity Health officials who announced the new rule this week.

Nearly 75 percent of Trinity Health employees have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine so far, officials said.

Exemptions are available for religious or health reasons, but must be formally requested, documented and approved. Employees who don’t meet the criteria for exemption and fail to show proof of vaccination will be fired, Trinity Health officials told the Detroit Free Press.

“The vaccines have proved to be safe and effective against symptomatic infections, hospitalizations and death with more than 99 percent of COVID-19 deaths today occurring in unvaccinated people,” MercyOne officials said in a statement.

The new vaccine requirement does not affect Mercy Iowa City as the rule only applies to MercyOne facilities directly connected with Trinity Health, Mercy Iowa City spokesman Aaron Scheinblum said.

“We held multiple, regular vaccine clinics for colleagues, just as we did for the community, that saw tremendous response,” Scheinblum wrote in an email.

Mercy Iowa City officials declined to provide the percentage of vaccinated employees.

A state law went into effect earlier this year that banned so-called “vaccine passports” and prohibited political entities from issuing identification cards that revealed a person’s vaccination status. This law does not apply to health care facilities, however, meaning hospitals and some other Iowa businesses are allowed to mandate employees get the COVID-19 vaccine.

MercyOne requirement a first for local hospitals

Other area hospitals have not taken steps to implement a vaccination requirement for clinical staff and other employees.

Officials with the state’s largest hospital, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, have stated previously they do not plan to mandate vaccines for staff and employees.

More than 15,300 UIHC employees have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Friday, according to data available on the health system’s website.

UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids will not mandate the vaccine while it is under emergency use authorization by federal officials, spokeswoman Sarah Corizzo said. If and when it does obtain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “our leadership will re-evaluate at that time,” she said.

Seventy-two percent of UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids employees have received the COVID-19 vaccine thus far, officials said.

“At UnityPoint Health, the health and safety of our patients, communities and team members is at the center of everything we do,” Corizzo said. “Like many other health care organizations, as a health care system, it’s our policy to strongly encourage but not require team members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.”

Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids also has not required its staff to receive the vaccine. Officials declined to state the percentage of vaccinated employees, but stated they have been “very pleased with our staff acceptance rate, which is well above national average for hospitals and clinics.”

“We continue to closely monitor many variables including the rate of vaccination, incidence of COVID in the community and hospitalizations due to COVID,” said Dr. Tony Myers, chief medical officer at Mercy.

“Our primary goal continues to be the safety of our health care force so we can care for the residents of Linn County. We have daily conversations regarding all actions necessary to achieve that goal.”

Comments: (319) 398-8469; michaela.ramm@thegazette.com