Beverly Hospital
Beverly Hospital COVID 19 Vaccinations Mandate For Workers
The leading health care providers in Massachusetts including Wellforce, Beth Israel Lahey Health, and Mass General Brigham currently require workers to be vaccinated against coronavirus.
Beth Israel Lahey Health and Mass General Brigham announced the deadlines in the messages they sent to their workers on August 10th 2021, saying there’s increased urgency for all hospital staff including nurses and doctors to get the shot to control the spread of coronavirus in Massachusetts as well as across the country.
The Massachusetts General Brigham, which includes the Salem Hospital, has set the deadline for October 15th 2021 for all their workers to get vaccinated. On the other hand, Beth Israel Lahey Health, which includes Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester, Lahey Medical Center in Peabody, and Beverly Hospital, set the deadline at October 31st, 2021.
Most recently, Beverly Hospital in greater Beverly, MA, reinstated the universal masking requirement, which means all staff and clinicians must wear a mask while in the hospital, except when drinking or eating in designated spaces. Masks are mandatory for anyone indoors regardless of their vaccination status and whether or not the staff is actively interacting with patients.
Beverly Hospital also delayed its remote work policy, which was scheduled to start on September 7th, 2021. However, in the light of the reducing cases of covid 19 infections, the staff that was working remotely is slowly getting back to work since mid-January 2022.
If the United States will finally get over the coronavirus pandemic, it's important for the health care leaders to take broader action. Some of the holdouts from hospitals have now moved to practice in private clinics, which only relocates the risks they pose. The best thing that health leaders can do about this is to encourage the formation of groupings that mandate covid19 vaccines in health care institutions, much as organizations in Massachusetts including Wellforce, Beth Israel Lahey, and Mass General Brigham that jointly announced their mandates late last year.
However, there is still a lot that needs to be done, especially now that several states have passed or working on legislation to ban employers from demanding proof of vaccination as an employment condition. Unfortunately, enforcement of such rules would prevent healthcare institutions like Beverly Hospital from doing what’s important to keep their patients safe. Health systems and hospitals ought to be exempted, as most of the laws would do.
In 2022, the responsibility of Beverly hospital to the safety and health of its patient means protecting every patient from covid 19.