Major Hawaiʻi Hospital Systems Announce Mandatory Employee Vaccine Policies

Four of the state's largest hospital systems announced Monday they are requiring all employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 — just as Hawaiʻi sees a record spike in cases.

The Healthcare Association of Hawaii, the trade group for hospitals and other health care facilities, also announced Monday it supports vaccine mandates for all health care workers. The group said vaccines should be required once the Food and Drug Administration grants them full approval — the policy would allow for exemptions.

Healthcare Association President and CEO Hilton Raethel said Gov. David Ige’s goal of a 70% vaccination rate was set before the emergence of the fast-spreading delta variant of the virus — which has changed the situation.

The state has reported over 300 new daily COVID-19 cases for the last six days — 389 cases were reported Tuesday.

"The general consensus is we need maybe, probably, to get out way past 70% to 80%, 85% to truly break the chain of transmission for this virus. And in order to do that, that means that many organizations in the state and the counties and private businesses would need to take a stance on vaccinations," Raethel said.

Four large hospital systems announced their own policies on mandatory employee vaccination before full approval from the FDA.

The Queen's Health Systems, Kaiser Permanente, Hawaiʻi Pacific Health and Adventist Health Castle all said their employees would need to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30 or Oct. 1, depending on the organization.

Hospital officials said plans to vaccinate the rest of their staff are already underway.

"There's an expectation amongst many of the public that health care workers should be vaccinated," Raethel said. "And some even express surprise as well, 'You have people who are not vaccinated?' And we absolutely believe that this is the right thing to do."

He also stressed the importance of achieving a higher vaccination rate among the general population.

Last week's infection rate for Hawaiʻi was 126 per 100,000 people. In August 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, the infection rate was 124 per 100,000, Raethel said, and that was without any vaccinations available.

"We know that approximately 60% of our population is vaccinated. That means in the unvaccinated population we have twice the infection rate now than what we did at the peak of the pandemic last year," he told Hawaiʻi Public Radio. "And that just shows you how scary this delta variant is, how quickly it's spreading, and it's spreading amongst children and adults."

"Our staff and our hospitals are stressed. They're tired, frustrated because overwhelmingly people showing up in their hospitals are unvaccinated. This is a preventable disease and until we get enough people vaccinated, we will continue to see illness, hospitalizations and deaths from the COVID pandemic," Raethel said.

Federal employees in Hawaiʻi with the Department of Veterans Affairs are facing a mandatory vaccine policy following a decision by President Joe Biden.

The Conversation reached out to Bonnie Pang, president of the Hawaii Employers Council to hear about concerns its private business members have about making vaccines mandatory for employees.

"Essentially, what we've heard is nobody wants to be the first one in Hawaiʻi to mandate a vaccine policy, because Hawaiʻi is different, we do tend to have a much more paternalistic approach when working with our employees," she said. "The guidance that we've been giving them is 'be thoughtful and be intentional.'"

Click the "Listen" button to hear more from Bonnie Pang. This interview aired on The Conversation on Aug. 2, 2021.