Injunction Allows Howard Memorial Hospital to Waive Vaccine Mandate…For Now

The recent vaccine mandate for many workers across the nation including hospital workers has been a hot topic. This requirement, adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is a U.S. federal agency that works with state governments to manage the Medicare program, is in part responsible for enforcing the December 6th deadline for those under the mandate.

In the most recent board meeting held by Howard Memorial, CEO Debra Wright stated that a poll was taken to gauge employee sentiment regarding the vaccine mandate. The results of this poll indicated that 127 employees were hesitant to get the vaccine. Wright said the impact this issue could have for the hospital could be a nightmare in terms of staffing if the hospital was required to not allow those who chose to remain unvaccinated to work. If not in compliance the hospital could potentially lose a large source of income which comes in the form of medicare and medicaid reimbursement.

Well, in what could be considered a breath of relief a United States District Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction against the CMS mandate which was issued on November 5th. The court noted that this mandate could have the potential to have a detrimental impact on hospitals such as Howard Memorial which are already dealing with severe staffing shortages. Which in turn would impact the physical health and wellbeing of the citizens within those communities.

In an email sent to Howard Memorial Staff on Tuesday afternoon CEO Debra Wright shared the news of this injunction and added that the requirement in the Howard Memorial policy to either receive the vaccine or submit a medical or religious exemption is on hold pending further court action. This again, could be good news for rural communities such as Nashville and the surrounding area who rely on a single hospital for immediate care when services are critically needed as a lack of staff impacts a hospital’s capabilities.

Further details to come as this case moves to trial.