Senior facilities welcome vaccine mandate rulings

    Lynne West, CEO of the Imperial Manor and Parkview-Heights, said it was keeping her up at nights.
    Lisa Kisinger said she feared losing 40-45% of her staff at the Wauneta Care & Therapy Center.
    All because of an impending mandate their employees faced to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
    But the heads of Chase County’s two nursing homes are elated with news on the vaccine mandate that hit their desks Monday afternoon.
    A judge in Missouri halted the Biden Administration’s mandate that required  the COVID vaccine for workers in all healthcare facilities that receive Medicaid or Medicare funding in 10 states that sued to block the rule handed down Nov. 5.
    Nebraska is among those 10 states affected by the preliminary injunction, which puts the mandate on hold.
    In his opinion, U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp of the Eastern District of Missouri, Eastern Division, ruled that Congress has not granted CMS the authority to mandate the vaccine.
    He said the injunction was warranted “given the vast economic and political significance” the mandate will have, along with “altering the balance between federal and state power.”
    Kisinger said there was a “whole different mood in the air” when her employees started shifts Tuesday in Wauneta.
    “We got the word about 3 p.m. Monday and the news spread like wildfire,” said West in Imperial.  
    “Staff kept popping in and asking, ‘Is it true?’” West said.
    It is, at least for now.
    However, only the 10 states who were originally part of the suit can take advantage of the halt to the mandate.
    It means healthcare workers in Nebraska have a reprieve.
    The mandate required that non-vaccinated healthcare employees must receive their first COVID vaccination no later than Dec. 5 and have the vaccination process completed by Jan. 4, 2022.
    Already with staffing shortages and several positions unfilled, West said they had few options if the mandate was kept in place.
    “It could have been catastrophic. It was keeping me up at night,” she said.
    West had some staff tell her privately they would quit and leave healthcare if the mandate was kept in place.
    Wauneta’s facility is also short-staffed now, and using more agency help than they would like, Kisinger said.
    “I expected 40-45% of the staff would have left,” she said.
    “We’ve been praying. I felt like something would have to break because healthcare cannot stand the (additional) staff losses,” she said.
    “The nation can’t withstand this,” she added.
    In Imperial, West said 40% of the 71-person staff at the Manor and Parkview-Heights is fully vaccinated (both shots).
    Of Wauneta’s 50 employees, 46% are fully vaccinated.
    Being in rural communities, their situations are similar to Chase County Community Hospital, where CEO Abby Cyboron said they had no options but to comply with the mandate due to the amount of Medicare/Medicaid patients they serve.
    West said 47% of its 51 residents in all three facilities are housed there with Medicare or Medicaid funding.
    In Wauneta, 58% of its 31 residents are Medicare or Medicaid funded.
    Kisinger said it would be devastating to lose a community’s nursing home or hospital due to this mandate.
    West said they would have had few options for their residents if the facility closed should it had opted to not comply with the mandate, which was out of the question.
    She said they don’t have a backup, or another facility to house residents, “because all nursing homes are in the same situation with staff shortages.”
    Both nursing homes had offered both religious and medical exemptions for those opposed to the vaccine.
    West said she is on several healthcare forums with other nursing home administrators, where ideas are shared.
    She said those in states who were not part of this lawsuit are upset.
    “But, we can’t celebrate too much. This is a reprieve for now, but anything can change,” she said.    
    However, both administrators seem hopeful.
    Kisinger said she thought it was important to let the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services know their thoughts on the now-halted mandate.
    She commented herself on the harm it could cause, as did Wauneta’s Director of Nursing, its infection preventionist and some of their board members.
    In Imperial, West also submitted comments, and encouraged her staff to do the same.
    Now that there’s been a stay on the mandate, West is also encouraging staff to reach out to the Governor’s office with their opinions again.
    West said she’s hopeful the stay will help preserve the staff they have, and even encourage more applications from potential new hires.
    “I hope this holds. Maybe we can be fully staffed again,” she said.
    Other states who were part of the lawsuit and now have a stay on the mandate include Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.  
Hospital CEO comments
    In light of Monday’s ruling, Cyboron, Chase County Community Hospital CEO, said they have frozen implementation of their vaccine mandate policy until more clarity comes from the courts.
    In an email to hospital staff Monday, she wrote:
    “As this case progresses we will continue to keep you updated, but as of right now the policy and its requirements will be suspended.”    
    Cyboron noted the lack of comment time was a big concern after the government issued the mandate Nov. 5.
    “Throughout the years when CMS has come out with different regulations, very extreme at times, there is always a gap between when the regulation comes out and when it becomes effective,” she said.
    Typically, Cyboron said the comment time allows “real people and real organizations” that have to implement the order to give input, “and common sense takes over.”
    That didn’t happen with the Nov. 5 mandate for healthcare employees. It was implemented without any comment period, she said.
    It’s been a weight on everyone’s shoulders, she said.
    “And, you can just feel it. It’s such a terrible feeling,” she added.  
    Then, the “good news” came Monday, she said.

Halt to mandate now nationwide
    A federal judge in Louisiana, Terry Doughty, issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday evening, prohibiting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from enforcing its healthcare worker vaccine mandate while a legal challenge brought by several states works its way through the federal court system.
    The injunction applies to the 40 U.S. states not included in the lawsuit Nebraska joined.
    In a separate ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp in Missouri temporarily blocked the CMS vaccine mandate in 10 states.
    That now means the halt to the mandate applies to healthcare workers in all 50 U.S. states.
    Before the two rulings this week, CMS required all covered staff to take at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by Dec. 5 and get fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.
    Information from Forbes magazine was used to compile this story.