KHSC needs COVID-19 vaccination status from a third of its health-care workers

Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) says 68 per cent of its health-care workers have reported their COVID-19 vaccination status so far.

Of that group, more than 85 per cent have provided evidence of being fully vaccinated.

This comes after the hospital organization implemented a policy last month that all health-care workers must do one of the following: provide proof of vaccination; provide a documented medical reason for not being vaccinated; or complete an education module about the benefits of vaccination and the risks of being unvaccinated.

Now, KHSC says it’s following up directly with the 32 per cent of the health-care workers who have not completed those steps.

“It’s important to note that vaccination status is not automatically available to employers, as it is personal health information and employees must consent to provide this information,” said Elizabeth Bardon, KHSC’s incident commander.

Still, Bardon believes numbers will go up as the summer progresses.
“Because it’s summertime, we have quite a few staff members who are taking some vacation, and very well-deserved and well earned vacation. A lot of people really haven’t had time off because it’s been so busy during the pandemic. So it’s not a surprise that we don’t yet have 100 per cent of people who have complied with the policy,” she said.
The policy came forward after the hospital went through a large COVID-19 outbreak, which affected both staff and patients. The number of staff affected by the outbreak made waves in Kingston, with many wondering if a number of health-care workers were not properly immunized against the virus.

KHSC has previously told Global News that it has no legal framework to enforce vaccination among its employees, but that it’s working to strongly encourage the vaccine.
“We’ll probably have a small percentage of people who are not willing to be vaccinated, and so, we want to continue to have conversations about the importance of vaccination,” she said.
Although they can’t force staff to get vaccinated, those who choose not to will be made to take extra safety precautions.
“We actually have stricter requirements for people who are unvaccinated than we do for fully vaccinated staff, and those will remain in place. We have different requirements for isolation related to exposure for people who are not vaccinated,” she said.
The outbreak ended July 27, and affected 10 patients and seven staff members.

2:13 COVID-19 outbreak at KGH climbs to 12 cases