LeadingAge joined 56 other healthcare professional associations Monday in calling for a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for long-term care and other healthcare workers.
The societies and organizations collectively represent millions of workers throughout long-term care and healthcare — including employees of independent living, assisted living, memory care and continuing care retirement communities; nursing homes; and home care agencies and hospice programs; as well as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, public health workers and epidemiologists. LeadingAge represents more than 5,000 nonprofit aging services providers.
“We stand with the growing number of experts and institutions that support the requirement for universal vaccination of health workers,” the groups said in a joint statement. “While we recognize some workers cannot be vaccinated because of identified medical reasons and should be exempted from a mandate, they constitute a small minority of all workers. Employers should consider any applicable state laws on a case-by-case basis.”
Existing COVID-19 vaccine mandates have proven effective, the groups said, noting “historical mistrust of health care institutions,” however. “We must continue to address workers’ concerns, engage with marginalized populations, and work with trusted messengers to improve vaccine acceptance,” they said in the statement.
Nursing home staff vaccination rates vary widely across the country, with a national rate of just over 61%, according to LeadingAge. Senior living employee vaccination rates are more difficult to calculate because the settings are regulated primarily at the state level rather than the federal level, and they do not have a national reporting requirement similar to the one that exists for nursing homes.
“As COVID-19 variants emerge and proliferate, it’s critical that we protect everyone who lives and works in long-term care, by ensuring staff are fully vaccinated,” LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan said in a statement issued with the joint statement. “Throughout the pandemic, long-term care providers have demonstrated their dedication, commitment and bravery in the face of unprecedented, challenging circumstances. They must heed the scientific evidence and do everything possible to deliver safe, quality care to the older adults and others they serve.”
In a separate statement issued Monday, LeadingAge said: “As the most effective tool to protect from the virus, COVID-19 vaccination should be a condition of employment for all healthcare workers, including employees, contract staff and others, with appropriate exemptions for those with medical reasons or as specified by federal or state law.”
Among other groups that have made similar calls for mandatory vaccination include AMDA–The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, which was among seven professional organizations representing long-term care and other clinical specialists that earlier this month released evidence-based recommendations that COVID-19 vaccinations should be mandatory for U.S. long-term care and other healthcare workers. The American Hospital Association last week also announced its support of mandatory employee vaccination policies for all healthcare workers.
Several senior living companies already have COVID-19 vaccine mandates in place. Last week, the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, one of the largest not-for-profit long-term care companies in the country, told its employees that they must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 1. In addition to Good Sam, among the senior living companies with vaccine mandates for employees are Aegis Living, ALG Senior, American House Senior Living Communities, The Arbor Co., Atria Senior Living, Benchmark Senior Living, Civitas Senior Living, Enlivant, Five Star Senior Living, Harbor Retirement Associates (for new employees), IntegraCare, Integral Senior Living, JEA Senior Living, Jewish Home Family, Juniper Communities, Masonicare, Pacific Retirement Services, Presbyterian Senior Living, Retirement Center Management, Silverado, Sunrise Senior Living, Trilogy Health Services, Trinity Health, Vi Living and Wesley Enhanced Living.
The groups signing Monday’s joint statement (listed alphabetically):
Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy
American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Nursing
American Academy of Ophthalmology
American Academy of PAs
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
American Association of Clinical Endocrinology
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
American Association of Neuroscience Nurses
American College of Clinical Pharmacy
American College of Physicians
American College of Preventive Medicine
American College of Surgeons
American Epilepsy Society
American Medical Association
American Nursing Association
American Pharmacists Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Public Health Association
American Society for Clinical Pathology
American Society for Radiation Oncology
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
American Society of Hematology
American Society of Nephrology
American Thoracic Society
Association for Clinical Oncology
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
Association of Academic Health Centers
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Rehabilitation Nurses
Council of Medical Specialty Societies
HIV Medicine Association
Infectious Diseases Society of America
LeadingAge
National Association of Indian Nurses of America
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
National Council of State Boards of Nursing
National Hispanic Medical Association
National League for Nursing
National Medical Association
National Pharmaceutical Association
Nurses Who Vaccinate
Organization for Associate Degree Nursing
Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society
Philippine Nurses Association of America, Inc.
Society of Gynecologic Oncology
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Society of Hospital Medicine
Society of Interventional Radiology
Texas Nurses Association
The John A. Hartford Foundation
Transcultural Nursing Society
Virgin Islands State Nurses Association
Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society
