Washington-based Halcyon House, a Wesleylife community, is requiring its team members to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, following a federal announcement requiring that nursing home staff be vaccinated to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.

Wesleylife, who employs about 1,800 team members in Iowa and Illinois across 12 communities, made the announcement on August 20th. Halcyon House Executive Director Chris Marshall says the deadline is November 1st. About 70% of Halcyon House’s 150 team members are fully vaccinated, and they plan to hold clinics for those who seek to get vaccinated. Marshall understands that this may affect their staffing, “The Wesleylife COVID Task Force has been working for weeks [on] what the best course of action is to keep our team members well and healthy. It’s been a tough year and a half, Wesleylife as a whole had several people who died and it was very hard on team members and other residents and looking back at that experience. I think that’s what makes a difference for us in saying that we should have the vaccine.”

As of Thursday, Halcyon House currently has three COVID-19 cases among one team member and two independent living residents. Wesleylife will consider exemptions for those who cite religious or medical reasons for not wishing to receive the vaccine.