AURORA | Children’s Hospital Colorado officials announced Thursday the north Aurora hospital will require the COVID-19 vaccine for all of its staff and team members, including volunteers and contract staff.
“Our team members have embodied the spirit of a caring community, adapting and persevering through the past 17 months,” Jena Hausmann, president and CEO of Children’s Colorado, said in a statement. “Vaccines are essential in the fight against COVID-19. With safe and effective vaccines widely available, this decision affirms our commitment to the safety and care for our team members and for those we serve.”
A hospital news release this week emphasized about 80% of patients at Children’s are ineligible for the vaccination, making them even more vulnerable to the virus.
People working with the hospital must receive a complete vaccination series by Oct. 1. Without both shots, team members will be “subject to increased PPE requirements, as well as routine COVID-19 PRC testing in accordance with epidemiological trends in Colorado and/or throughout the country,” according to the hospital.
Since December, the hospital has provided nearly 50,000 COVID-19 vaccines through vaccine clinics mostly on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Children’s joins other major hospitals across the state and nation in requiring the vaccine for its workers.
Banner Health, which has hospitals in Greeley, Fort Collins, Loveland, Sterling and Brush, said last month it’s making the vaccine a condition of employment. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which also operates a hospital on the Anschutz campus near Children’s, will require frontline workers to receive the vaccination.
Centura Health told the Colorado Sun it was not planning to mandate the vaccine for its employees and UCHealth, which is providing incentives to its staff, told the online news organization it may enact a mandate later this fall.
HealthONE, which operates the Medical Center of Aurora, hasn’t mandated the vaccine.
As of Tuesday, the state health department reported about 65% of eligible Coloradans are fully vaccinated. In both Adams and Arapahoe counties, about 70% of residents have received at least one dose.
I work at UCHealth. There is already a mandate here. All employees must be fully vaccinated by October 1st- just like at Children’s.