UCHealth is likely to require its staff and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19 within the next several months, but other major Colorado systems continue to mull such a requirement for their employees.

None of the three currently available COVID-19 vaccines has received full approval by the Food and Drug Administration; all are operating under an emergency use authorization. Many hospitals have yet to require their staff receive one of the doses, but that may change, a Colorado Hospital Association official said, once federal regulators give the vaccines full approval.

“If/when a vaccine receives full approval from the FDA, we expect that many (hospitals and health systems) will revisit their policies,” Cara Welch, a spokeswoman for the association, said in an email. “CHA may also consider recommending a statewide approach.”

Health care workers in Colorado were among the first to be eligible for vaccines in December, and major systems, including Centura, UCHealth, Denver Health and HealthONE, said Tuesday that their staffs’ uptake exceeds 70%. With the exception of Centura, the other systems said they had surpassed 80%. 

A spokeswoman for SCL Health did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Of the major hospital systems contacted by the Gazette on Tuesday, only UCHealth provided a definitive path forward. Dan Weaver, a spokesman for the sprawling system, said UCHealth “plans to mandate the vaccine for all of our employees and contractors at some point, likely later this year.”

The requirement will match UCHealth’s – as well as other systems’ – requirement that staff be vaccinated against influenza. Though a mandate appears to be on the horizon for UCHealth, Weaver said the system had instituted an incentive earlier this month: All vaccinated employees and contractors will receive a $500 bonus. Already inoculated staffers will receive those bonuses this month, while employees who’re vaccinated between now and Aug. 22 will get the payment in September.

Centura has also launched a $500 incentive program, said spokesman Kevin Massey. But he was evasive about the prospects of a requirement in the future.

“As for a potential future mandate for the COVID vaccine, when it becomes FDA-approved, Centura will re-evaluate at that time,” he said in an email. “Again, we are hopeful that more of our caregivers will choose to receive the vaccine as we build on the majority who have chosen to do so already.”

HealthONE spokeswoman Stephanie Sullivan said the system didn’t “plan to” require vaccines. The system does require flu vaccinations, she continued, and any staffer who doesn’t receive one “were required to wear masks during respiratory season.”

Because of the pandemic, universal masking is the status quo in HealthONE facilities. But when face-coverings are no longer mandatory, it’s unclear if HealthONE will enforce its flu-masking policy to those who aren’t inoculated against COVID-19. 

“No firm policy or guidance has been determined for COVID vaccine yet,” she said.

Welch, the hospital association spokeswoman, said many “smaller and rural facilities” are in a similar position: awaiting full approval before revisiting the question of requiring vaccines. She noted that annual influenza vaccinations are “mandated in health care facilities in Colorado.”

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health and Environment did not directly respond when asked if the state would require hospital workers be vaccinated.

The cons of requiring it, she continued, “would be that some individuals may choose to leave a hospital that implements a mandate, as we have seen for other organizations that have already implemented a mandate.” Doug Farmer, the president of a nursing home trade group here, has previously said long-term care facilities face a similar predicament: If they require doses, will some employees leave an already understaffed industry?

After UCHealth, Denver Health expressed the most interest in mandating their staff be vaccinated. Rachel Hirsch, spokeswoman for the hospital, said Tuesday that officials there are “in the process of discussing what a mandatory vaccine policy … would look like.” Like Weaver, she compared any such policy to the flu vaccine requirements.

“Right now discussions are preliminary, but we know that institutions like the University of Colorado Anschutz have made this decision,” Hirsch said, “and we are hoping to be in step with them.”