The Washington County Board of Health unanimously approved a modified COVID-19 vaccine policy Thursday following disagreements on what was proposed the week prior.
In order to be compliant with the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services agencies such as public health are required by March 15th to have all staff vaccinated or tested weekly. A policy presented to the board on February 17th that reflected CMS guidance failed to pass with physicians Chris Gier and Trevor Martin voting nay as they disagreed with weekly testing for those unvaccinated. During a special meeting Thursday, Public Health Director Emily Tokheim presented a new policy which replaces weekly testing with enhanced mitigation measures, “Essentially this is what we’ve been doing as an agency from the very beginning. It adds that additional documentation aspect that I believe CMS is looking for, that measurable documented aspect of asking staff to verify that they have not been having any symptoms and then it puts a system in place for if they do present with two or more of these symptoms listed above and how we will address that.”
All staff regardless of vaccine status will adhere to daily self-screening for symptoms and will certify weekly that they have not been experiencing two or more of the symptoms the policy lists. Clinical Nurse Manager Karri Fisher will retain forms signed by the employees to ensure documentation of mitigation measures. Staff with fever or two or more of symptoms of infection will be excluded from work until a negative COVID test and at least 24 hours have passed since last fever and other other symptoms have improved, or five days have passed if no testing obtained as well as 24 hours since last fever and other symptoms have improved with the employee wearing a mask for an additional five days when around others. The mask requirement is subject to change depending on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Mitigation measures also include that a N95, KN95, or surgical grade mask will be required at all times during direct patient care.
Below is the approved policy, pending review and approval from the county attorney: