MaineHealth on Monday defended its decision to vaccinate all hospital workers against COVID-19, saying it follows the federal and state guidelines that were in place until the effort was well underway.
But Maine Medical Center, the flagship hospital of MaineHealth in Portland, was wrong to vaccinate a small number of outside consultants hired to fight an effort to unite nurses, which happened after the state issued guidelines that limited the vaccination to Maine. residents, network officials said.
“We understand that residents who are not in Maine are not eligible for any vaccine and acknowledge that we have made a mistake by vaccinating the individuals,” MaineHealth said in a written statement in a column by Bill Nemitz in the Maine Sunday Telegram from Maine.
On Sunday, however, MaineHealth CEO Bill Caron sent a letter to the board of trustees confirming that he had been told in December that the guidelines for the first phase would change out of face-to-face hospital workers. to close. contact with patients, including remote staff, telecom health, administrative, information technology and billing staff.
Caron said he decided to continue vaccinating all hospital employees, regardless of the rules, as a necessary step to protect hospital operations and infrastructure.
Caron had a ‘somewhat heated’ exchange with dr. Nirav Shah, head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said he was “changing the rules of the game – which he would not recognize,” Caron said. By that time, MaineHealth had vaccinated staff members who were clinically and non-clinically confronted and began vaccinating employees who did not have patients.
“It was on December 29 that I made the decision that we will continue to vaccinate our Tier 5 care team members, even if the governor changes the next day,” Caron said in the letter to trustees. “That day I told us (MaineHealth management team) that they and I’ll probably have a bull’s eye on our backs’, but we need to continue to protect our healthcare infrastructure.”
Caron said he would make the same decision today … and I know the whole (management team) will be right there with me. Our decision was rooted in the values we espouse as a system, and we focused on “The protection of the valuable resource of healthcare infrastructure entrusted to us. We were disciplined and followed the federal and state guidance given to us.”
MaineHealth CEO Bill Caron, who was photographed last week before the opening of a mass vaccination clinic in the former Scarborough Downs, said on Monday that the company “followed the federal and state leadership we received” to ent. all hospital workers. Derek Davis / Staff Photographer Buy this photo
While Caron was told about the change on Dec. 29, it only appeared in the guidelines posted on the state website on Jan. 13, MaineHealth said Monday.
Caron noted that the U.S. CDC early on defined “health workers” to include all health workers, with the goal of protecting health care infrastructure. In Maine, hospitals have stepped up to lead the COVID-19 vaccination effort following the serious cuts to the public health budget by former government Paul LePage and the lack of advanced planning by the current government.
On top of that, Caron said, after hospitals began vaccinating mid-December health care workers in mid-December, governments Janet Mills and state health officials came under increasing pressure from health care providers outside the hospital networks who wanted vaccination for their workers.
As of Monday, 68 percent of MaineHealth’s 22,500 employees had both received Pfizer shots, three weeks apart, indicating that most received at least one shot when the Maine CDC phase 1A vaccination guidelines appeared on its online dashboard at 13 January updated, MaineHealth officials said.
Shah turned down a request for an interview Monday and the Maine CDC did not respond to a request for documents showing various changes to Phase 1A vaccination guidelines.
Jackie Farwell, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, provided a link and summary of the current guidelines, which reflect U.S. CDC guidelines and now exclude non-patient-oriented administrative staff and employees working remotely.
“Maine DHHS has informed MaineHealth and other vaccine providers of these guidelines and has communicated this definition throughout,” Farwell said in a prepared statement. “At the end of December, Maine DHHS further determined for MaineHealth and other vaccine providers who qualify as healthcare professionals eligible under Phase 1A to target vaccines more effectively to frontline employees.”
However, an archived description of eligible Phase 1A health workers who were on the Maine CDC’s dashboard before Jan. 13 stated that they are ‘paid and unpaid staff members serving in health care institutions, who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials. … (they consist of clinical staff members, including nursing or medical assistants, and support staff (e.g., those working in food, environmental, and administrative services). “It is linked to the U.S. CDC website for further information. At that time, no on-site staff excluded staff who did not face patients.
Meanwhile, on January 12, National Nurses United and the Maine State Nurses Association submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board to represent the 1,600 full-time, regular part-time, and day-to-day nurses at Maine Med.
Within weeks, Maine Med hired Reliant Labor Consultants in Florida to provide mandatory “training” to the nurses “to help them decide if they want a union to speak for them,” according to an internal memo. Reliant lists among its services ‘to avoid a trade union’ and ‘to fight a trade union’.
Caron and other MaineHealth officials said Maine Med usually offers vaccinations to contracted service providers who have regular contact with care team members or patients.
During the week beginning Jan. 17, Maine Med offered vaccine to about 10 people from outside the country who were brought in to ‘support’ nurses and managers’ to answer questions about the impact of joining a union, according to the statement from MaineHealth.
However, on January 18, the state issued new guidelines that only residents of Maine would be eligible for vaccines, and MaineHealth made a mistake in vaccinating consultants outside the state, the statement said.
MaineHealth’s decision to vaccinate all members of the care team was beneficial because it began setting up mass vaccination clinics in its service area, the statement said.
“A majority of the employees who worked mainly from home during the pandemic are now being redeployed to vaccine staff,” the statement said. “MaineHealth stands by its decision to secure its entire healthcare system by vaccinating its full healthcare team. We believe this is the best approach for patients, care team members and the communities we serve. ”
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