Kentucky hospital executives with 11 health care groups said Thursday they will require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect the health of patients and other workers. Jennie Stuart Medical Center is not among the hospitals that support a mandatory vaccination policy for its workers.
Three groups — the Kentucky Hospital Association, the Kentucky Medical Association and the Kentucky Nurses Association — also issued a joint statement of support for mandatory vaccines.
The announcement, made during a news conference with Gov. Andy Beshear, comes as state and national health officials warn that the delta variant of COVID-19 is spreading at a dangerous rate.
“We must lead by example by requiring that all Baptist Health employees are fully vaccinated,” Gerard Colman, CEO of Baptist Health, said in a release from the governor’s office. “It is the ethical and responsible thing to do to live our mission of improving the health care of the communities that we serve.”
Baptist Health has a medical facility on Clinic Drive in Hopkinsville.
Other hospital groups that signed onto a statement supporting mandatory vaccines include Appalachian Regional Healthcare, CHI Saint Joseph Health, King’s Daughters Health System, Med Center Health, Norton Healthcare, Pikeville Medical Center, St. Claire Healthcare, St. Elizabeth Healthcare, UK Healthcare and UofL Health.
In response to Hoptown Chronicle’s request for the Hopkinsville hospital’s policy, spokesman Chris Jung said, “Jennie Stuart Health is not mandating a COVID-19 vaccination for its employees at this time. As we continue to play a crucial role in the care of our patients, particularly throughout the pandemic, we certainly encourage all staff to get vaccinated, but no requirement guidelines exist. Jennie Stuart Health is grateful for its dedicated health care professionals who remain steadfast in the fight against COVID, and we will continue to evaluate policies as needed.”
In their joint statement, the state hospital, medical and nurses associations said, “KHA, KMA and KNA support hospitals and health systems amending their existing vaccine policies to require COVID-19 vaccines for their health care employees. Vaccination against COVID-19 is our best tool to prevent spread of the disease, protect our patients and ensure the health and well-being of our hospital workforce and all Kentuckians. We recognize that each hospital and health system is unique and encourage each hospital and health system to determine the appropriate timeline to implement a requirement.”
Executives from the hospitals that will require inoculation said they would require their health care workers to initiate a vaccine series by Sept. 15.
“We have an opportunity for more prosperity, more potential than ever before in my lifetime. We can have the Kentucky that we have always dreamed of. We have that potential at our fingertips,” Beshear said.
“But if we are truly going to realize that opportunity, we must win our war against COVID. If we are going to defeat and not just delay COVID-19, there is one and only one answer. That answer is vaccinations. So each decision that we make has to gauge the impact on getting the unvaccinated to take that shot,” he said.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack, said that 92.3% of COVID-19 cases, 91.4% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 88.7% of COVID-19 deaths were among partially vaccinated or unvaccinated Kentuckians between March 1 and Aug. 4.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
