Whitley County Health Department to require employees to be vaccinated
Sep. 23—WHITLEY COUNTY — Employees, contractors and volunteers of the Whitley County Health Department will now be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Monday night, the Whitley County Board of Health met virtually where board members voted to approve a policy requiring that all employees, contractors and volunteers performing work at or on behalf of the Whitley County Health Department be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
"We have worked hard to vaccinate our staff the best we can," said Whitley County Health Department Public Health Director Marcy Rein. "We have a really high vaccination rate, somewhere between 88 and 91 percent vaccinated at this point. But we do have some that have not gotten vaccinated and have indicated that they are not planning on it for a variety of reasons."
While the mandatory vaccination policy does require that all employees, contractors and volunteers be fully vaccinated, it does allow for exemptions for medical or religious reasons or a conscientiously-held belief. It will provide a timeframe for those who are unvaccinated to get their vaccine and give them the choice of which vaccine they get and what provider they go through, as well as time off for any side effects related to the vaccine or time off if they were to get COVID-19.
"I think it's really important for us to have this policy for several reasons," Rein said. "One is we have a role in modeling to our community the behavior that we're asking others to do, so as a public health entity, I think it's important for us to model our vaccinated status. We provide patient care for very vulnerable patients, particularly in home health and so, we want to keep our patients safe, we want to keep the people that come to the health department for services safe. And I have some concern for liability in that patient care or staff exposure if we have unvaccinated staff providing care on an ongoing basis."
Those who choose not to follow the mandate will face disciplinary action and possible termination, unless they have asked for accommodations due to a medical or religious exemption.
During Monday's meeting, Rein also discussed third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine which the health department is currently offering to those who are immunocompromised. Rein said the health department is not currently offering the COVID-19 booster shot, only third doses for those who are immunocompromised.
Rein also reported to the board of health that the health department's Health Access Nurturing Development Services or HANDS program, which is a voluntary home visitation program for new and expectant mothers, had 352 visits in August.
"HANDS has been doing much of its visiting still via telehealth," Rein said. "We did try to move back to home visits. With the case rate high, if they are doing a home visit, we are requiring them to do it outdoors, so we've had some adjustment in how we're doing those services going forward."
The Whitley County Health Department is looking at developing a mobile app for community members to take advantage of.
"It's going to be basically an electronic version of the written resource guides that we produce for the community," Rein said.
Rein told board members the app would be free on Google Play and in the App Store but likely won't be ready for a few weeks.
"We're really excited about it," she said. "It's an opportunity to advertise better what the health department does but it's also an opportunity to make it easier to find information about how to access community resources, like if they need a food bank or a place to go for housing and transportation and things like that."
The Whitley County Board of Health is scheduled to meet again on November 15, location to be determined.
