Virginia Mason Franciscan Health mandates employees get the COVID-19 vaccine
BREMERTON — Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, the largest provider of healthcare on the Kitsap Peninsula, decided Friday to require all its employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
"After careful consideration, we believe this is a necessary step in order to keep patients and team members safe, and to ensure our communities have full confidence in the safety of their care environments," Dr. Michael Anderson, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health's chief medical officer, said in a statement to the Kitsap Sun. "We appreciate the dedication of our employees over the past year in addressing the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and are finalizing the details of the vaccine requirement.”
The news was a change for the hospital giant and followed several Puget Sound health care providers, including Kaiser Permanente and MultiCare, which announced a vaccine mandate earlier in the week.
Virginia Mason Franciscan's operations in Kitsap include St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale, its emergency room and regional campus, as well as community providers like West Sound Orthopaedics and The Doctor’s Clinic.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/virginia-mason-franciscan-health-mandates-employees-get-the-covid-19-vaccine/ar-AAN1ZLa