With more vaccine mandates on the way, a coalition of 19 Colorado health care organizations said Thursday that all health care employees should be vaccinated; that those two years and older should wear masks indoors, especially children returning to school; and to support the health care organizations that mandate vaccinations for their employees. Children’s Hospital on Thursday announced it would mandate vaccines for its employees, medical staff, trainees, volunteers, vendors, medical students and contract staff by October 1st. Children’s joins UC Health and Denver Health, which also has mandated vaccines for its employees.

Gov. Jared Polis, in a COVID-19 update presented Thursday, said 501 people are hospitalized with COVID, including 17 children under the age of 18. The vaccine is not yet available for those under 12 years of age.

The 19 organizations include those representing doctors and other health care professionals, the Colorado Hospital Association, which consists  of local public health officials, and the Colorado Health Care Association & Center for Assisted Living, which represents nursing homes, assisted living centers and rehab facilities.

“We are confident that the Colorado health care community will continue to lead by example in embracing and promoting the COVID-19 vaccines,” the letter stated. “The dramatic increase in variants of concern has added urgency to the already pressing need to achieve herd immunity for Coloradans. Vaccination is the primary way we will avoid overwhelming the health care system in our state and finally put the pandemic behind us. Colorado’s health care workers have heroically cared for their communities throughout the pandemic, but we must all come together to protect the most vulnerable among us.”

The statement comes one week after one of the nation’s largest nursing home operators, Genesis Healthcare, ordered a vaccine mandate for its 70,000 employees, as well as vendors and “care partners” nationwide, with a deadline for the second shot no later than Sept. 22 or risk termination. Exemptions are granted only for medical or religious reasons. Genesis has six facilities in Colorado and 385 nationwide.

Genesis isn’t alone, according to Doug Farmer, president and CEO of the Colorado Health Care Association. The Good Samaritan Society, the nation’s fifth largest operator of nursing homes, and which has three facilities in Loveland, Simla and Fort Collins, instituted a vaccine mandate last month. The Good Samaritan facility in Simla was the first in the nation to report a case of the British variant of COVID-19 last December.

Vivage is Colorado’s largest nursing care facility with 31 sites. Dr. Gregory Gahm of Vivage told Colorado Politics they instituted an immunization mandate on Wednesday. “The hardest part with vaccine mandates is that those people who are refusing to be vaccinated are adamant about not doing it. It comes down to a balance between vaccine mandates and staffing issues,” which he said are “terrible” right now. The company’s leaders sat down and decided “we are about patients; they entrust our lives to us and we have to make the best decision to protect patients.”

Vivage staff who are unvaccinated have three choices. The first is to get vaccinated. For those who choose not to be vaccinated because the vaccines have not been fully authorized by the FDA, once that’s done, staff must start the process to be vaccinated within two weeks of that approval. The third is to allow any staff member who has recovered from COVID to show proof of antibodies through a PCR test. Gahm said while it’s not quite as good as being vaccinated, they are putting out an olive branch and counting that as being vaccinated. 

For long-term care facilities, mandating vaccines can create dual concerns, according to Farmer. “They want to make sure they protect the residents” from COVID as well as maintain staffing levels. He said Genesis’ decision to require vaccines was a big risk but one they had to take.

Companies are now in a position to take in new residents, but don’t have the staff to bring in those new residents, Farmer said. 

Vaccine mandates for nursing facilities raise concerns that it will lead to a worsening of staff shortages, but one industry expert believes that in the long-run, mandates will lead to modest shortages and could even be seen as a benefit to hiring. According to McKnight’s Long Term Care News, Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, the nation’s second-largest nursing home association, said, “We’ve seen that when employers issue a mandate with sufficient lead time – combined with education, answering questions about the vaccine and explaining the benefits – many hesitant employees will accelerate their decision to get the vaccine. While there are valid concerns about mandates’ potential contribution to workforce shortages, what we are seeing, to date, is a modest loss.”

The nation’s largest nursing home association, the American Health Care Association, however, has not joined in the call for vaccine mandates for nursing homes and related facilities.

Farmer also noted that vaccine mandates don’t cover everyone going into a health care facility. The federal government requires facilities to allow visitors, who cannot be kept in or out because of their vaccination status. 

Coalition letter from health care organizations urging vaccine mandates and mask wearing