COVID-19 booster shot requirements for health care workers issued by the state in Friday "Dear Administrator Letter"

Jan. 25—LOWVILLE — Updated guidance from the state Department of Health on the COVID-19 vaccination booster requirement landed in the email boxes of health care facility executives around the state at about 7 p.m. on Friday in the form of a DAL — a "Dear Administrator Letter."

This time, unlike the original vaccination mandate, home care and hospice organizations are being included from the start.

The guidance is a follow-up to Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul's Jan. 7 announcement that she intended to require booster shots for all health care workers, which was approved by the state Public Health and Planning Council on Jan. 11.

Although the governor originally stated boosters would be required "within two weeks of becoming eligible" for the extra shot, the final guidance now gives a 30-day window after eligibility starting immediately.

"Covered entities shall continuously require personnel to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and to have received any booster or supplemental dose as recommended by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), absent receipt of a medical exemption," the guidance says.

Each facility or agency must document that its staff is fully "boosted" by Feb. 21, and anyone who is not yet eligible for a booster will have 30 days from their first day of eligibility to do so.

Health care facility leaders around the state have expressed concern that requiring the booster will cause more health care workers to leave their jobs, but some local facilities have been planning for this for some time and are guardedly optimistic.

"We have in fact been planning for this once the CDC came out with the booster recommendation that you're not completely vaccinated unless you're boosted as well. We've been really prepping our staff," said Samaritan spokesperson Leslie DeStefano. "There's a deadline now attached so we are communicating that out to staff and working with them whether they're eligible or not yet eligible ... and many of us have been boosted because we could see it was the right thing to do."

Acknowledging that the booster requirement may impact already tenuous staffing, Ms. DeStefano said there was no way to know exactly what that impact will be but that Samaritan has been "working all along" to deal with and plan for further staffing challenges, especially by making three "market adjustments" to wages.

Samaritan management is, however, optimistic that the reaction to the booster requirement will be better than the reaction to the original vaccine mandate.

"We're confident with the staff that we have, if they've made the commitment once to become vaccinated we're really hoping that they'll see why this booster is also important to keep themselves and, obviously, patients and residents safe as well," she said. "We've always respected individual choice. They made a choice and we commend them for that, so we're hoping they'll make the next 'best choice' and get that booster."

Carthage Area Hospital and Claxton-Hepburn Hospital Chief Executive Officer Richard Duvall, however, stated via the Carthage hospital news office that the booster requirement will affect much.

"We are evaluating the impacts of the mandate now and currently don't anticipate any major staffing impacts," he said.

The Home Care Association of New York State, however, has been advocating for a longer timeframe than 30 days to ensure home care workers get their booster shots because of "the adverse impact it will have on an already dire shortage of home care and hospice staff, the resulting adverse effect on the delivery of patient services, burdensome administrative requirements for agencies and other reasons."

The "reasonable accommodation" language for religious exemptions that was eventually added to the original vaccination mandate also holds true with the booster shots.

Someone that has "sincerely held religious beliefs consistent with applicable Federal and State laws," can only remain unvaccinated in their jobs if they can do those jobs in a way that does not put them in contact with any patients or other staff members, volunteers or other people that come into contact with patients or staff.

This directive is more clearly laid out in the original "Frequently Asked Questions" page issued by the Department of Health in August and while some health care professionals believe that page will also be updated soon, there is no doubt the "reasonable accommodation" clause for religious objections will remain in place.

Practically speaking, however, that sliver of a door opening only saved a few jobs in most places, Ms. DeStefano said, because in health care there are very few positions that don't require patient or staff contact.

The Lewis County Health System did what it could for a number of employees seeking religious exemption, which involved finding them isolated work spaces, in some cases off the hospital's main campus, but only a few staff members could be kept in place through that method, none of whom were the much-needed nurses, nursing assistants and doctors.