Should the Joint Commission mandate all hospital employees get the flu shot?
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1 Comment
Rick,
EVERYBODY deciding to do something does not equate to “being correct”. Our society has too many examples of that sort of bad decision-making. Laymen have little to no clue about reality on many things except perhaps what they deal with on a daily basis, so of course they will have no idea whether or not medical workers are vaccinated. Present some data on whether the vaccinations are effective along with the risk of vaccination associated illness (which I see in my ED ALL THE TIME) vs “benefit” of achieving herd immunity. A more epidemiologically and economically sound solution would be to simply enforce the wearing of masks by those who are ill (no time limit on effectiveness). But as with ALL things medicine we hold human patients to the same standard that veterinarians do, so thoughtful minds are unlikely to prevail. Having healthy people wear a mask to prevent contracting illness (which would be good for 8 hours continuous use at most) is wasteful, economically irresponsible and just plain stupid. JCAHO has so little clue about the reality of practicing medicine in this country that the end result of what you propose would be the creation of even deeper shortages in hospital staffing. Besides, which agency has the cojones to risk class action litigation when the 3 – 7% side effect rate of vaccination kicks in? Remember, the pharmaceutical companies were given legal immunity against recourse should there be untoward side effects. Doesn’t that whole fiasco seem just a little bit suspect to you? How deplorably irresponsible of you to suggest mandating vaccination under these circumstances given significantly better alternatives and suspect manufacturing oversight! You have GOT to be joking!